
Class ^£^// 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



BY A. J. GEORGE, A.M. 



WORDSWORTH'S PRELUDE, with notes. 
SELECTIONS FROM WORDSWORTH, with notes. 
BURKE'S SPEECHES ON THE AMERICAN WAR, and LET- 
TER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL, with notes. 
SYLLABUS OF ENGLISH HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 



IN PREPARATION. 

SCOTT'S MARMION. 

WORDSWORTH'S EXCURSION, and THE WHITE DOE OF RYL- 

STONE. 
THE HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF SCOTLAND 

I. THE HIGHLANDS. II. THE BORDER. 



EDMUND BURKE. 

SPEECHES ON THE AMERICAN WAR, 

AND 

LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 

WITH 

KntroUucttan antr Notes 

By a. J. GEORGE, A.M. 



.'■•';rjG» ■ -■'■ 



" / shall always consider that liberty as very equivocal in 
her appearance, zvhich has not zuisdom and justice for her 
compactions, and does not lead prosperity and plenty in 
her trainP 



BOSTON, U.S.A. : 
PUBLISHED BY D. C. HEATH & CO. 
1891. 






Copyright, 1891, 
By a. J. GEORGE. 



tvpografhy by j. s. cushing & co., boston. 
Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston. 



^3^3::' 



TO 

MY FRIEND AND TEACHER, 

Sosepl} E. ©urgea, mM., 

THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY 
INSCRIBED. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Introduction vii 

Speech on American Taxation. /. i 

Speech on Arrival at Bristol 72 

Speech at the Conclusion of the Poll 76 

Speech on Conciliation with America 85 

Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol 167 

Biographical 222 

Ministries during Burke's Political Life 223 

A Group of Burke's Literary Friends 223 

Scheme for Analysis of Style 224 

Notes 225 

Books of Reference 242 

V 



INTRODUCTION, 



One of the noblest masterpieces in the Hterature of civil 
and political wisdom, is to be found in Burke's three produc- 
tions on the American War ; his speech on Taxation in 1 774 ; 
on Conciliation in 1775 ; and his Letter to the Sheriffs of 
Bristol, 1777. 

These three pieces are the most perfect manual in all 
Hterature for the study of great affairs, whether for the pur- 
pose of knowledge or action. They are an example without 
fault of all the qualities which the critic, whether a theorist 
or an actor, of great political situations should strive by night 
and by day to possess. ... No student worthy of the name 
will lay aside these pieces, so admirable in their literary ex- 
pression, so important for history, so rich in lessons of civil 
wisdom, until he has found out something .from other sources 
as to the circumstances from which such writings arose, and 
as to the man whose resplendent genius inspired them. — 
John Morley. 



The great value of all his speeches, before and during the 
American War, is, I apprehend, this, that he treats relations 
between countries as if they were no less real than the rela- 
tions between individuals. — Rev. F. D. Maurice. 



viii JNTR OD UCTION. 

Unlike Hume, whose politics were elaborated in the study, 
Burke wrote his political tracts and speeches face to face 
with events, and upon them. Philosophical reasoning and 
poetic passion were wedded together in them on the side of 
conservatism, and every art of eloquence was used with the 
mastery that imagination gives. — Rev. Stopford Brooke. 

Burke's political philosophy was strictly a moral philoso- 
phy. The popular notions of good and evil, of right and 
wrong, as inculcated in the ordinary precepts of the Christian 
religion, were his standard of estimating all political actions. 
He can, indeed, only be justly characterized as the greatest 
pohtical thinker of his time, and perhaps of any time. — 
Thomas MacKnight, Life and Times of Burke. 

Among the eminent men who have influenced legislative 
assembhes in Great Britain and the United States, during the 
past hundred and twenty years, it is curious that only two 
have established themselves as men of the first class in Eng- 
lish and American Hterature. These two men are Edmund 
Burke and Daniel Webster. — E. P. Whipple. 

In the common principles of all social and civil order, 
Burke is unquestionably our best and wisest teacher. In 
handling the particular questions of his time he always in- 
volves those principles, and brings them to their practical 
bearings, where they most " come home to the business and 
bosoms of men." And his pages are everywhere bright with 
the highest and purest pohtical morality, while at the same 
time he is a consummate master in the intellectual charms 
and graces of authorship. — H. N. Hudson. 



INTR OD UC TION. ix 

One who studies the hfe and work of Edmund Burke will 
find that it naturally divides itself into four great periods, 
which are characterized not so much by their duration as by 
the nature of the work done. The first may be called the 
period of Preparation ; the second, that of the American 
War ; the third, of the Indian Question ; and the fourth, of 
the French Revolution. 

Each of these periods is worthy of careful study ; and as 
the selections contained in this volume refer to the second 
period, their use ought to result in a desire to master the 
principles which entered into and moulded the life of that 
great statesman and great man. The present generation 
must not be allowed to forget that the sources of our politi- 
cal and social well-being are in the lives of those who, in any 
age and under whatever circumstances, have endeavored to 
make reason and the will of God prevail. 

This work is edited in the hope that by furthering the 
study of the greatest political classic in the English language, 
it may also further that spirit which seeks to study history 
as revealed in literature, and literature as inspired by great 
historic events. 

In the preparation of the notes the editor has confined 
himself to the historical setting and interpretation of the 
work, and has left the question of literary merit to be wrought 
out by the pupil under the inspiration of the class-room exer- 
cise. A careful analysis of Burke's style, according to the 
Scheme on page 224, will be found advantageous. 

In the matter of biography, one of the works given on 

page 242 should be consulted. A T C 

Brookline, Mass., 
April, 1891. 



SPEECH OF EDMUND BURKE, Esq., 

ON 

AMERICAN TAXATION. 

April 19, 1774. 



Sir : I agree with the honourable gentleman^ who spoke 
last, that this subject is not new in this House. Very dis- 
agreeably to this House, very unfortunately to this nation, 
and to the peace and prosperity of this whole empire, no 
topic has been more familiar to us. For nine long years, 5 
session after session, we have been lashed round and round 
this miserable circle of occasional arguments and temporary 
expedients, I am sure our heads must turn, and our stomachs 
nauseate with them. We have had them in every shape ; we 
have looked at them in every point of view. Invention is 10 
exhausted ; reason is fatigued ; experience has given judg- 
ment ; but obstinacy is not yet conquered.^ 

The honourable gentleman has made one endeavour more 
to diversify the form of this disgusting argument. He has 
thrown out a speech composed almost entirely of challenges. 15 
Challenges are serious things ; and as he is a man of pru- 
dence as well as resolution, I dare say he has very well 
weighed those challenges before he dehvered them. I had 
long the happiness to sit at the same side of the House, and 
to agree with the honourable gentleman on all the American 20 
questions.^ My sentiments, I am sure, are well known to 
him ; and I thought I had been perfectly acquainted with 



2 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

his. Though I find myself mistaken, he will still permit me 
to use the privilege of an old friendship ; he will permit me 
to apply myself to the House under the sanction of his 
authority ; and, on the various grounds he has measured out, 

5 to submit to you the poor opinions which I have formed 
upon a matter of importance enough to demand the fullest 
consideration I could bestow upon it. 

He has stated to the House two grounds of deliberation : 
one narrow and simple, and merely confined to the question 

10 on your paper ; the other more large and more complicated ; 
comprehending the whole series of the parliamentary pro- 
ceedings with regard to America, their causes, and their 
consequences. With regard to the latter ground, he states 
it as useless, and thinks it may be even dangerous, to enter 

15 into so extensive a field of inquiry. Yet, to my surprise, he 
had hardly laid down this restrictive proposition, to which 
his authority would have given so much weight, when directly, 
and with the same authority, he condemns it ; and declares 
it absolutely necessary to enter into the most ample historical 

20 detail.-^ His zeal has thrown him a little out of his usual 
accuracy. In this perplexity what shall we do. Sir, who are 
wilHng to submit to the law he gives us ? He has reprobated 
in one part of his speech the rule he had laid down for 
debate in the other ; and, after narrowing the ground for all 

25 those who are to speak after him, he takes an excursion him- 
self, as unbounded as the subject and the extent of his great 
abilities. 

Sir, when I cannot obey all his laws, I will do the best I 
can. I will endeavour to obey such of them as have the 

30 sanction of his example ; and to stick to that rule, which, 
though not consistent with the other, is the most rational. 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 3 

He was certainly in the right when he took the matter 
largely. I cannot prevail on myself to agree with him in his 
censure of his own conduct. It is not, he will give me leave 
to say, either useless or dangerous. He asserts, that retro- 
spect is not wise ; and the proper, the only proper, subject 5 
of inquiry, is " not how we got into this difficulty, but how 
we are to get out of it." In other words, we are, according 
to him, to consult our invention, and to reject our experience.^ 
The mode of deliberation he recommends is diametrically 
opposite to every rule of reason and every principle of good 10 
sense established amongst mankind. For that sense and 
that reason I have always understood absolutely to prescribe, 
whenever we are involved in difficulties from the measures 
we have pursued, that we should take a strict review of those 
measures, in order to correct our errors, if they should be 15 
corrigible ; or at least to avoid a dull uniformity in mischief, 
and the unpitied calamity of being repeatedly caught in the 
same snare. 

Sir, I will freely follow the honourable gentleman in his 
historical discussion, without the least management for men 20 
or measures, further than as they shall seem to me to deserve 
it. But before I go into that large consideration, because I 
would omit nothing that can give the House satisfaction, I 
wish to tread the narrow ground to which alone the honour- 
able gentleman, in one part of his speech, has so strictly 25 
confined us. 

He desires to know, whether, if we were to repeal this tax, 
agreeably to the proposition of the honourable gentleman 
who made the motion, the Americans would not take post 
on this concession, in order to make a new attack on the 30 
next body of taxes ; and whether they would not call for a 



4 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 

repeal of the duty on wine as loudly as they do now for the 
repeal of the duty on tea? Sir, I can give no security on this 
subject. But I will do all that I can, and all that can be 
fairly demanded. To the experience which the honourable 

5 gentleman reprobates in one instant, and reverts to in the 
next ; to that experience, without the least wavering or 
hesitation on my part, I steadily appeal ; and would to God 
there was no other arbiter to decide on the vote with which 
the House is to conclude this day. 

10 When parliament repealed the stamp act in the year 1766, 
I affirm, first, that the Americans did not in consequence of 
this measure call upon you to give up the former parlia- 
mentary revenue which subsisted in that country ; or even 
any one of the articles which compose it^ I affirm also, that 

15 when, departing from the maxims of that repeal, you revived 
the scheme of taxation, and thereby filled the minds of the 
colonists with new jealousy, and all sorts of apprehensions, 
then it was that they quarrelled with the old taxes, as well 
as the new ; then it was, and not till then, that they ques- 

20 tioned all the parts of your legislative power ; and by the 
battery of such questions have shaken the solid structure of 
this empire to its deepest foundations. 

Of those two propositions I shall, before I have done, 
give such convincing, such damning proofs, that however the 

25 contrary may be whispered in circles, or bawled in news- 
papers, they never more will dare to raise their voices in this 
House. I speak with great confidence. I have reason for 
it. The ministers are with me. They at least are convinced 
that the repeal of the stamp act had not, and that no repeal 

30 can have, the consequences which the honourable gentleman 
who defends their measures is so much alarmed at. To their 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 5 

conduct I refer him for a conclusive answer to this objection. 
I carry my proof irresistibly into the very body of both min- 
istry and parliament ; not on any general reasoning growing 
out of collateral matter, but on the conduct of the honourable 
gentleman's ministerial friends on the new revenue itself. 5 

The act of 1767, which grants this tea duty, sets forth in 
its preamble, that it was expedient to raise a revenue in 
America, for the support of the civil government there, as 
well as for purposes still more extensive. To this support 
the act assigns six branches of duties. About two years after 10 
this act passed, the ministry, I mean the present ministry, 
thought it expedient to repeal five of the duties, and to leave 
(for reasons best known to themselves) only the sixth stand- 
ing. Suppose any person, at the time of that repeal, had 
thus addressed the minister : ^ " Condemning, as you do, the 15 
repeal of the stamp act, why do you venture to repeal the 
duties upon glass, paper, and painters' colours? Let your 
pretence for the repeal be what it will, are you not thoroughly 
convinced, that your concessions will produce, not satisfac- 
tion, but insolence, in the Americans ; and that the giving up 20 
these taxes will necessitate the giving up of all the rest?" 
This objection was as palpable then as it is now ; and it was 
as good for preserving the five duties as for retaining the 
sixth. Besides, the minister will recollect, that the repeal of 
the stamp act had but just preceded his repeal ; and the ill 25 
poHcy of that measure, (had it been so impohtic as it has 
been represented,) and the mischiefs it produced, were quite 
recent. Upon the principles, therefore, of the honourable 
gentleman, upon the principles of the minister himself, the 
minister has nothing at all to answer. He stands condemned 30 
by himself, and by all his associates, old and new, as a de- 



6 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

stroyer, in the first trust of finance, of the revenues ; and in 
the first rank of honour, as a betrayer of the dignity of his 
country. 

Most men, especially great men, do not always know their 

5 well-wishers. I come to rescue that noble lord out of the 
hands of those he calls his friends; and even out of his own. 
I will do him the justice he is denied at home. He has not 
been this wicked or imprudent man. He knew that a re- 
peal had no tendency to produce the mischiefs which give 

10 so much alarm to his honourable friend. His work was not 
bad in its principle, but imperfect in its execution ; and the 
motion on your paper presses him only to complete a proper 
plan, which, by some unfortunate and unaccountable error, 
he had left unfinished. 

15 I hope. Sir, the honourable gentleman, who spoke last, is 
thoroughly satisfied, and satisfied out of the proceedings of 
ministry on their own favourite act, that his fears from a 
repeal are groundless. If he is not, I leave him, and the 
noble lord who sits by him, to settle the matter, as well as 

20 they can, together ; for if the repeal of American taxes de- 
stroys all our government in America — He is the man ! — 
and he is the worst of all the repealers, because he is the last.-^ 
But I hear it rung continually in my ears, now and for- 
merly, — " the preamble ! what will become of the preamble, 

25 if you repeal this tax?" — I am sorry to be compelled so 
often to expose the calamities and disgraces of parliament. 
The preamble of this law, standing as it now stands, has the 
lie direct given to it by the provisionary part of the act ; if 
that can be called provisionary which makes no provision. 

30 I should be afraid to express myself in this manner, especially 
in the face of such a formidable array of ability as is now 



SPEECH OX AMERICAN TAXATION. 7 

drawn up before me, composed of the ancient household 
troops of that side of the House, and the new recruits from 
this, if the matter were not clear and indisputable. Nothing 
but truth could give me this firmness ; but plain truth and 
clear evidence can be beat down by no ability. The clerk 5 
will be so good as to turn to the act, and to read this fovour- 
ite preamble : 

Whereas it is expedient that a revenue should be raised in 
your Majesty's dominions in America, for making a more 
certain and adequate provisio?i for defraying the charge of 10 
the administration of justice, and support of civil government, 
/// such provinces where it sha/t be found necessary; and 
towards further defraying the expenses of defending, protect- 
ing, and securing the said dominions. 

You have heard this pompous performance. Now where 15 
is the revenue which is to do all these mighty things ? Five- 
sixths repealed — abandoned — sunk — gone — lost for ever. 
Does the poor solitary tea duty support the purposes of this 
preamble? Is not the supply there stated as effectually 
abandoned as if the tea duty had perished in the general 20 
wreck? Here, Mr. Speaker, is a precious mockery — a pre- 
amble without an act — taxes granted in order to be repealed 
— and the reasons of the grant still carefully kept up ! This 
is raising a revenue in America ! This is preserving dignity 
in England ! If you repeal this tax in compliance with the 25 
motion, I readily admit that you lose this fair preamble. 
Estimate your loss in it. The object of the act is gone al- 
ready ; and all you suffer is the purging the statute-book of 
the opprobrium of an empty, absurd, and folse recital. 

It has been said again and again, that the five taxes were 30 
repealed on commercial principles. It is so said in the 



8 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 

paper in my hand ; ^ a paper which I constantly carry about ; 
which I have often used, and shall often use again. What 
is got by this paltry pretence of commercial principles I 
know not : for if your government in America is destroyed 

5 by the repeal of taxes, it is of no consequence upon what 
ideas the repeal is grounded. Repeal this tax too upon com- 
mercial principles if you please. These principles will serve 
as well now as they did formerly. But you know that, either 
your objection to a repeal from these supposed consequences 

10 has no validity, or that this pretence never could remove it. 
This commercial motive never was beheved by any man, 
either in America, which this letter is meant to soothe, or in 
England, which it is meant to deceive. It was impossible it 
should. Because every man, in the least acquainted with the 

15 detail of commerce, must know, that several of the articles 
on which the tax was repealed, were fitter, objects of 
duties than almost any other articles that could possibly be 
chosen ; without comparison more so than the tea that was 
left taxed ; as infinitely less liable to be eluded by contra- 

20 band. The tax upon red and white lead was of this nature. 
You have, in this kingdom, an advantage in lead, that amounts 
to a monopoly.^ When you find yourself in this situation of 
advantage, you sometimes venture to tax even your own 
export. You did so soon after the last war ; when, upon 

25 this principle, you ventured to impose a duty on coals. In 
all the articles of American contraband trade, who ever 
heard of the smuggling of red lead and white lead? You 
might, therefore, well enough, without danger of contraband, 
and without injury to commerce, (if this were the whole 

30 consideration,) have taxed these commodities. The same 
may be said of glass. Besides, some of the things taxed 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 9 

were so trivial, that the loss of the objects themselves, and 
their utter annihilation out of American commerce, would 
have been comparatively as nothing. But is the article of 
tea such an object in the trade of England, as not to be felt, 
or felt but slightly, like white lead and red lead, and painters' 5 
colours? Tea is an object of far other importance. Tea is 
perhaps the most important object, taking it with its neces- 
sary connexions, of any in the mighty circle of our commerce. 
If commercial principles had been the true motives to the 
repeal, or had they been at all attended to, tea would have 10 
been the last article we should have left taxed for a subject 
of controversy. 

. Sir, it is not a pleasant consideration ; but nothing in the 
world can read so awful and so instructive a lesson, as the 
conduct of ministry in this business, upon the mischief of 15 
not having large and liberal ideas in the management of great 
affairs.-^ Never have the servants of the state looked at the 
whole of your complicated interests in one connected view. 
They have taken things by bits and scraps, some at one 
time and one pretence, and some at another, just as they 20 
pressed, without any sort of regard to their relations or de- 
pendencies. They never had any kind of system, right or 
wrong ; but only invented occasionally some miserable tale 
for the day, in order meanly to sneak out of difficulties, into 
which they had proudly strutted. And they were put to all 25 
these shifts and devices, full of meanness and full of mischief, 
in order to pilfer piece-meal a repeal of an act, which they 
had not the generous courage, when they found and felt their 
error, honourably and fairly to disclaim. By such manage- 
ment, by the irresistible operation of feeble councils, so paltry 30 
a sum. as .threcrpence in the eyes of a financier, so insignifi- 



10 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 

cant an article as tea in the eyes of a philosopher, have 
shaken the pillars of a commercial empire that circled the 
whole globe. 

Do you forget that, in the very last year, you stood on the 

5 precipice of general bankruptcy? Your danger was indeed 
great. You were distressed in the affairs of the East India 
Company ; and you well know what sort of things are in- 
volved in the comprehensive energy of that significant appel- 
lation.^ I am not called upon to enlarge to you on that 

10 danger, which you thought proper yourselves to aggravate, 
and to display to the world with all the parade of indiscreet 
declamation. The monopoly of the most lucrative trades,^ 
and the possession of imperial revenues, had brought you 
to the verge of beggary and ruin.^ Such was your represen- 

15 tation — such, in some measure, was your case. The vent 
of ten millions of pounds of this commodity, now locked up 
by the operation of an injudicious tax, and rotting in the 
warehouses of the company,'' would have prevented all this 
distress, and all that series of desperate measures which you 

20 thought yourselves obliged to take in consequence of it. 
America would have furnished that vent, which no other part 
of the world can furnish but America ; where tea is next to 
a necessary of life ; and where the demand grows upon the 
supply. I hope our dear-bought East India committees'* 

25 have done us at least so much good, as to let us know, that, 
without a more extensive sale of that article, our East India 
revenues and acquisitions can have no certain connexion with 
this country. It is through the American trade of tea that 
your East India conquests are to be prevented from cnishing 

30 you with their burthen. They are ponderous indeed : and 
they must have that great country to lean upon, or they 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 11 

tumble upon your head. It is the same folly that has lost 
you at once the benefit of the west and of the east. This 
folly has thrown open folding-doors to contraband ; and will 
be the means of giving the profits of the trade of your colo- 
nies to every nation but yourselves. Never did a people 5 
suffer so much for the empty words of a preamble. It must 
be given up. For on what principle does it stand ? This 
famous revenue stands, at this hour, on all the debate as a 
description of revenue not as yet known in all the compre- 
hensive (but too comprehensive) vocabulary of finance — a ^o 
preambulary tax. It is indeed a tax of sophistry, a tax of 
pedantry, a tax of disputation, a tax of war and rebellion, a 
tax for anything but benefit to the imposers, or satisfaction 
to the subject. 

Well ! but whatever it is, gentlemen will force the colo- 15 
nists to take the teas. You will force them? Has seven 
years' struggle been yet able to force them ? O but it seems 
" we are in the right. The tax is trifling — in effect it is 
rather an exoneration than an imposition ; three-fourths of 
the duty formerly payable on teas exported to America is 20 
taken off ; the place of collection is only shifted ; instead 
of the retention of a shilling from the drawback here, it is 
three-pence custom paid in America." All this, Sir, is very 
true. But this is the very folly and mischief of the act. 
Incredible as it may seem, you know that you have deliber- 25 
ately thrown away a large duty which you held secure and 
quiet in your hands, for the vain hope of getting one three- 
fourths less, through every hazard, through certain litigation, 
and possibly through war. 

The manner of proceeding in the duties on paper and 3P 
glass, imposed by the same act, was exactly in the same 



12- SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

spirit. There are heavy excises on those articles when used 
in England. On export, these excises are drawn back.^ But 
instead of withholding the drawback, which might have been 
done, with ease, without charge, without possibility of smug- 

5 gling ; and instead of applying the money (money already in 
your hands) according to your pleasure, you began your 
operations in finance by flinging away your revenue ; you 
allowed the whole drawback on export, and then you charged 
the duty, (which you had before discharged,) payable in the 

10 colonies ; where it was certain the collection would devour 
it to the bone, if any revenue were ever suffered to be col- 
lected at all. One spirit pervades and animates the whole 
mass.^ 

Could anything be a subject of more just alarm to America, 

15 than to see you go out of the plain high-road of finance, and 
give up your most certain revenues and your clearest inter- 
ests, merely for the sake of insulting your colonies ? No man 
ever doubted that the commodity of tea could bear an impo- 
sition of three-pence. But no commodity will bear three- 

20 pence, or will bear a penny, when the general feelings of 
men are irritated, and two millions of people are resolved 
not to pay. The feelings of the colonies were formerly the 
feelings of Great Britain. Theirs were formerly the feelings 
of Mr. Hampden when called upon for the payment of 

25 twenty shillings. Would twenty shiUings have ruined Mr. 
Hampden's fortune ? No ! but the payment of half twenty 
shillings, on the principle it was demanded, would have made 
him a slave. It is the weight of that preamble, of which you 
are so fond, and not the weight of the duty, that the Ameri- 

30 cans are unable and unwilling to bear. 

It is then. Sir, upon the principle of this measure, and 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. ]3 

nothing else, that we are at issue. It is a principle of politi- 
cal expediency. Your act of 1767 asserts, that it is expedi- 
ent to raise a revenue in America; your act of 1769, which 
takes away that revenue, contradicts the act of 1767 ; and, 
by something much stronger than words, asserts, that it is not 5 
expedient. It is a reflection upon your wisdom to persist 
in a solemn parliamentary declaration of the expediency of 
any object, for which, at the same time, you make no sort 
of provision. And pray, Sir, let not this circumstance escape 
you ; it is very material ; that the preamble of this act, which 10 
we wish to repeal, is not declaratory of a right, as some gen- 
tlemen seem to argue it ; it is only a recital of the expediency 
of a certain exercise of a right supposed already to have 
been asserted ; an exercise you are now contending for 
by ways and means, which you confess, though they were 15 
obeyed, to be utterly insufficient for their purpose. You are 
therefore at this moment in the awkward situation of fighting 
for a phantom ; a quiddity ; a thing that wants, not only a 
substance, but even a name ; for a thing, which is neither 
abstract right, nor profitable enjoyment. 20 

They tell you. Sir, that your dignity is tied to it. I know 
not how it happens, but this dignity of yours is a terrible 
encumbrance to you ; for it has of late been ever at war with 
your interest, your equity, and every idea of your policy. 
Show the thing you contend for to be reason ; show it to be 25 
common sense ; show it to be the means of attaining some 
useful end ; and then I am content to allow it what dignity 
you please. But what dignity is derived from the persever- 
ance in absurdity, is more than ever I could discern. The 
honourable gentleman has said well — indeed, in most of his 30 
general observations I agree with him — he says, that this 



14; SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

subject does not stand as it did formerly. Oh, certainly not ! 
Every hour you continue on this ill-chosen ground, your 
difficulties thicken on you ; and therefore my conclusion is, 
remove from a bad position as quickly as you can. The 

5 disgrace, and the necessity of yielding, both of them, grow 
upon you every hour of your delay. 

But will you repeal the act, says the honourable gentle- 
man, at this instant when America is in open resistance to 
your authority, and that you have just revived your system of 

lo taxation? He thinks he has driven us into a corner. But 
thus pent up, I am content to meet him ; because I enter 
the lists supported by my old authority, his new friends, the 
ministers themselves. The honourable gentleman remem- 
bers, that about five years ago as great disturbances as the 

15 present prevailed in America on account of the new taxes. 
The ministers represented these disturbances as treasonable ; 
and this House thought proper, on that representation,, to 
make a famous address for a revival, and for a new apphca- 
tion of a statute of Henry VHI.^ We besought the king, in 

20 that well-considered address, to inquire into treasons, and to 
bring the supposed traitors from America to Great Britain 
for trial. His Majesty was pleased graciously to promise a 
compliance with our request. All the attempts from this 
side of the House to resist these violences, and to bring 

25 about a repeal, were treated with the utmost scorn. An 
apprehension of the very consequences now stated by the 
honourable gentleman, was then given as a reason for shut- 
ting the door against all hope of such an alteration. And so 
strong was the spirit for supporting the new taxes, that the 

30 session concluded with the following remarkable declaration. 
After stating the vigorous measures which had been pursued, 
the speech from the throne proceeds ; 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 15 

Y(Mi have assured me of your firm supp07^t in the prosecu- 
tion of them. Nothing, in my opinion, could be more likely to 
enable the well-disposed among my subjects in that pai't of 
the world, effectually to discourage and defeat the designs of 
the factious and seditious, than the hearty concurrence of every 5 
b?'anch of the legislature, in maintaining the execution of the 
laws in ^M^xy part of my dominions. 

After this no man dreamt that a repeal under this ministry 
could possibly take place. The honourable gentleman knows 
as well as I, that the idea was utterly exploded by those who 10 
sway the House. This speech was made on the ninth day 
of May, 1769. Five days after this speech, that is, on the 
13th of the same month, the public circular letter, a part of 
which I am going to read to you, was written by Lord Hills- 
borough, secretary of state for the colonies. After reciting 15 
the substance of the king's speech, he goes on thus : 

" / can take upon me to assure you, notwithstanding in- 
sinuations to the contrary, from men with factious and sedi- 
tious views, that his Majesty's present administration have at 
no time entertained a design to propose to parliament to lay 20 
any further taxes upon America for the purpose of Rx^ISING 
A REVENUE ; and that it is at present their intention to 
propose, the next session of parliament, to take off the duties 
upon glass, paper, and colours, upon consideration of such 
duties having been laid contrary to the true principles of 25 
commerce. 

'^ These have always been, and still are, the sentiments of 
his Majesty's present ser\^ants ; and by which their conduct 
in respect to America has been governed. And\\\% Majesty 
relies upon your prudence and fidelity for such an explanation t,o 
of his measures, as may tend to remove the prejudices which 



16 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

have been excited by the misrepresentations of those who are 
enejnies to the peace and prosperity of Great Britain and 
her colonies ; and to re-establish that mictiial confidence and 
affection upon which the glory and safety of the British 

5 empij-e depend.''^ 

Here, Sir, is a canonical book of ministerial scripture ; 
the general epistle to the Americans. What does the 
gentleman say to it ? Here a repeal is promised ; prom- 
ised without condition ; and while your authority was act- 
io ually resisted. I pass by the public promise of a peer 
relative to the repeal of taxes by this House. I pass by 
the use of the king's name in a matter of supply, that 
sacred and reserved right of the commons. I conceal the 
ridiculous figure of parliament, hurling its thunders at the 

15 gigantic rebellion of America ; and then five days after 
prostrate at the feet of those assembhes we affected to 
despise ; begging them, by the intervention of our min- 
isterial sureties, to receive our submission, and heartily 
promising amendment. These might have been serious 

20 matters formerly ; but we are grown wiser than our fathers. 
Passing, therefore, from the constitutional consideration to 

• the mere policy, does not this letter imply, that the idea of 
taxing America for the purpose of revenue is an abomi- 
nable project; when the ministry suppose that none but 

25 factious men, and with seditious views, could charge them 
with it? does not this letter adopt and sanctify the Ameri- 
can distinction of taxing for a revenue ? does it not formally 
reject all future taxation on that principle ? does it not state 
the ministerial rejection of such principle of taxation, not 

30 as the occasional, but the constant, opinion of the king's 
servants? does it not say, (I care not how consistently,) 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 17 

but does it not say, that their conduct with regard to 
America has been always governed by this poHcy ? It goes 
a great deal further. These excellent and trusty servants 
of the king, justly fearful lest they themselves should have 
lost all credit with the world, bring out the image of their 5 
gracious sovereign from the inmost and most sacred shrine, 
and they pawn him as a security for their promises. — " His 
Majesty relies on your prudence and fidelity for such an 
explanation of his measures." These sentiments of the 
minister, and these measures of his Majesty, can only relate 10 
to the principle and practice of taxing for a revenue ; and 
accordingly Lord Botetourt, stating it as such, did, with 
great propriety, and in the exact spirit of his instructions, 
endeavour to remove the fears of the Virginian assembly,^ 
lest the sentiments, which it seems (unknown to the world) 15 
had always been those of the ministers, and by which their 
conduct in respect to America had been goveiiied, should by 
some possible revolution, favourable to wicked American 
taxes, be hereafter counteracted. He addresses them in 
this manner : 20 

It may possibly be objected, that, as his Majesty' s present 
administration are not immortal, their sticcessors may be 
inclined to attempt to undo what the present ministers shall 
have attempted to peij'orm ; and to that objection I can give 
but this answer ; that it is my jirm opinion, that the plan I 25 
have stated to you wjll certaiiily take place ; and that it will 
never be depai'ted from ; and so deter??iined am I for ever to 
abide by it, that I will be content to be declared infamous, if 
I do not, to the last hour of my life, at all times, in all 
places, and upon all occasions, exei^t every power with which 30 
/ either am or ever shall be legally invested, in order to ob- 



18 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

tain and mdAXitdXwfor the continent of America //z^/ satisfac- 
tion which I have been authorized to pj'omise this day, by the 
confidential servants of our gracious sovereign, who to my 
certaiji knowledge rates his honour so high, that he would 

5 rather part with his crown, than preserve it by deceit. 

A glorious and true character ! which (since we suffer 
his ministers with impunity to answer for his ideas of taxa- 
tion) we ought to make it our business to enable his Ma- 
jesty to preserve in all its lustre. Let him have character, 

10 since ours is no more ! Let some part of government be 
kept in respect ! 

This epistle was not the letter of Lord Hillsborough 
solely ; though he held the official pen. It was the letter 
of the noble lord upon the floor/ and of all the king's then 

15 ministers, who (with I think the exception of two only) are 
his ministers at this hour. The very first news that a Brit- 
ish parliament heard of what it was .to do with the duties 
which it had given and granted to the king, was by the pub- 
lication of the votes of American assembhes. It was in 

20 America that your resolutions were pre-declared. It was 
from thence that we knew to certainty, how much exactly, 
and not a scruple more or less, we were to repeal. We 
were unworthy to be let into the secret of our own conduct. 
The assemblies had confidential communications from his 

25 Majesty's confidential servants. We were nothing but in- 
struments. Do you, after this, wonder that you have no 
weight and no respect in the colonies? After this, are you 
surprised, that parliament is every day and everywhere 
losing (I feel it with sorrow, I utter it with reluctance) that 

30 reverential affection, which so endearing a name of authority 
ought ever to carry with it ; that you are obeyed solely from 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 19 

respect to the bayonet ; and that this House, the ground 
and pillar of freedom, is itself held up only by the treach- 
erous under-pinning and clumsy buttresses of arbitrary 
power? 

If this dignity, which is to stand in the place of just policy 5 
and common sense, had been consulted, there was a time for 
preserving it, and for reconcihng it with any concession. If 
in the session of 1 768, that session of idle terror and empty 
menaces, you had, as you were often pressed to do, repealed 
these taxes ; then your strong operations would have come 10 
justified and enforced, in case your concessions had been 
returned by outrages. But, preposterously, you began with 
violence ; and before terrors could have any effect, either 
good or bad, your ministers immediately begged pardon, and 
promised that repeal to the obstinate Americans, which they 15 
had refused in an easy, good-natured, complying British 
parliament. The assemblies, which had been publicly and 
avowedly dissolved for their contumacy, are called together 
to receive your submission. Your ministerial directors blus- 
tered like tragic tyrants here ; and then went mumping 20 
with a sore leg in America, canting and whining, and com- 
plaining of faction, which represented them as friends to a 
revenue from the colonies. I hope nobody in this House 
will hereafter have the impudence to defend American taxes 
in the name of ministry. The moment they do, with this 25 
letter of attorney in my hand, I will tell them, in the author- 
ized terms, they are wretches, "with factious and seditious 
views ; enemies to the peace and prosperity of the mother 
country and the colonies," and subverters '^of the mutual 
affection and confidence on which the glory and safety of 30 
the British empire depend." 



20 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

After this letter the question is no more on propriety or 
dignity. They are gone already. The faith of your sover- 
eign is pledged for the political principle. The general 
declaration in the letter goes to the whole of it. You must 

5 therefore either abandon the scheme of taxing ; or you must 
send the ministers tarred and feathered to America, who 
dared to hold out the royal faith for a renunciation of all 
taxes for revenue. Them you must punish, or this faith you 
must preserve. The preservation of this faith is of more 

lo consequence than the duties on red lead or white lead, or on 
broken glass, or atlas- ordinary, or demy-fine, or blue ?'oyal, or 
bastard, oxfooPs-cap, which you have given up ; or the three- 
pence on tea which you retained. The letter went stamped 
with the public authority of this kingdom. The instructions 

15 for the colony government go under no other sanction ; and 
America cannot believe, and will not obey you, if you do not 
preserve this channel of communication sacred. You are 
now punishing the colonies for acting on distinctions, held 
out by that very ministry which is here shining in riches, in 

20 favour, and in power ; and urging the punishment of the very 
offence to which they had themselves been the tempters. 

Sir, if reasons respecting simply your own commerce, 
which is your own convenience, were the sole ground of the 
repeal of the five duties ; why does Lord Hillsborough, in 

25 disclaiming in the name of the king and ministry their ever 
having had an intent to tax for revenue, mention it as the 
means "of re-establishing the confidence and affection of 
the colonies ? " Is it a way of soothing others, to assure them 
that you will take good care of yourself? The medium, the 

30 only medium, for regaining their affection and confidence, 
is, that you will take off something oppressive to their minds. 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 21 

Sir, the letter strongly enforces that idea : for though the 
repeal of the taxes is promised on commercial principles, 
yet the means of comiteracting " the insinuations of men 
with factious and seditious views," is, by a disclaimer of the 
intention of taxing for revenue, as a constant, invariable sen- 5 
timent and rule of conduct in the government of America. 

I remember that the noble lord on the floor, not in a 
former debate to be sure, (it would be disorderly to refer to 
it, I suppose I read it somewhere,) but the noble lord was 
pleased to say, that he did not conceive how it could enter 10 
into the head of man to impose such taxes as those of 1767 ; 
I mean those taxes which he voted for imposing, and voted 
for repealing ; as being taxes contrary to all the principles 
of commerce, laid on British mamifactures. 

I dare say the noble lord is perfectly well read, because 15 
the duty of his particular office requires he should be so, in 
all our revenue laws ; and in the policy which is to be col- 
lected out of them. Now, Sir, when he had read this act of 
American revenue, and a little recovered from his astonish- 
ment, I suppose he made one step retrograde (it is but one) 20 
and looked at the act which stands just before in the statute- 
book. The American revenue act is the forty-fifth chapter ; 
the other to which I refer is the forty-fourth of the same 
session. These two acts are both to the same purpose ; 
both revenue acts ; both taxing out of the kingdom ; and 25 
both taxing British manufactures exported. As the forty- 
fifth is an act for raising a revenue in America, the forty- 
fourth is an act for raising a revenue in the Isle of Man.^ 
The two acts perfectly agree in all respects, except one. In 
the act for taxing the Isle of Man, the noble lord will find 30 
(not, as in the American act, four or five articles) but almost 



22 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

the whole body of British manufactures, taxed from two and 
a half to fifteen per cent., and some articles, such as that of 
spirits, a great deal higher. You did not think it uncom- 
mercial to tax the whole mass of your manufactures, and, let 

5 me add, your agriculture too ; for, I now recollect, British 
corn is there also taxed up to ten per cent., and this too in 
the very head quarters, the very citadel of smuggling, the 
Isle of Man. Now will the noble lord condescend to tell 
me why he repealed the taxes on your manufactures sent 

10 out to America, and not the taxes on the manufactures 
exported to the Isle of Man? The principle was exactly 
the same, the objects charged infinitely more extensive, the 
duties, without comparison, higher. Why? Why, notwith- 
standing all his childish pretexts, because the taxes were 

15 quietly submitted to in the Isle of Man ; and because they 
raised a flame in America. Your reasons were political, not 
commercial. The repeal was made, as Lord Hillsborough's 
letter well expresses it, to regain '' the confidence and affec- 
tion of the colonies, on which the glory and safety of the 

20 British empire depend." A wise and just motive surely, if 
ever there was such. But the mischief and dishonour is, 
that you have not done what you had given the colonies just 
cause to expect, when your ministers disclaimed the idea of 
taxes for a revenue. There is nothing simple, nothing manly, 

25 nothing ingenuous, open, decisive, or steady, in the proceed- 
ing, with regard either to the continuance or the repeal of 
the taxes. The whole has an air of httleness and fraud. 
The article of tea is slurred over in the circular letter, as it 
were by accident — nothing is said of a resolution either to 

30 keep that tax, or to give it up. There is no fair dealing in 
any part of the transaction. 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 23 

If you mean to follow your true motive and your public 
faith, give up your tax on tea for raising a revenue, the prin- 
ciple of which has, in effect, been disclaimed in your name ; 
and which produces you no advantage ; no, not a penny. 
Or, if you choose to go on with a poor pretence instead of a 5 
solid reason, and will still adhere to your cant of commerce, 
you have ten thousand times more strong commercial reasons 
for giving up this duty on tea, than for abandoning the five , 
others that you have already renounced. 

The American consumption of teas is annually, I believe, 10 
worth ^^300,000 at the least farthing. If you urge the 
American violence as a justification of your perseverance in 
enforcing this tax, you know that you can never answer this 
plain question — Why did you repeal the others given in the 
same act, whilst the very same violence subsisted ? — But you 15 
did not find the violence cease upon that concession. — No ! 
because the concession was far short of satisfying the prin- 
ciple which Lord Hillsborough had abjured ; or even the 
pretence on which the repeal of the other taxes was an- 
nounced ; and because, by enabling the East India Company 20 
to open a shop for defeating the American resolution not to 
pay that specific tax, you manifestly showed a hankering 
after the principle of the act which you formerly had re- 
nounced. Whatever road you take leads to a compHance 
with this motion. It opens to you at the end of every vista. 25 
Your commerce, your policy, your promises, your reasons, 
your pretences, your consistency, your inconsistency — all 
jointly oblige you to this repeal.^ 

But still it sticks in our throats, if we go so far, the Ameri- 
cans will go farther. We do not know that. We ought, 3° 
from experience, rather to presume the contrary. Do we 



24 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

not know for certain that the Americans are going on as fast 
as possible, whilst we refuse to gratify them ? Can they do 
more, or can they do worse, if we yield this point ? I think 
this concession will rather fix a turnpike to prevent their 

5 further progress. It is impossible to answer for bodies of 
men. But I am sure the natural effect of fidelity, clemency, 
kindness in governors, is peace, good-will, order, and esteem 
on the part of the governed. I would certainly, at least, 
give these fair principles a fair trial ; which, since the mak- 

10 ing of this act to this hour, they never have had. 

Sir, the honourable gentleman having spoken what he 
thought necessary upon the narrow part of the subject, I 
have given him, I hope, a satisfactory answer. He next 
presses me by a variety of direct challenges and oblique 

15 reflections to say something on the historical part. I shall 
therefore. Sir, open myself fully on that important and deli- 
cate subject ; not for the sake of telling you a long story, 
(which I know, Mr. Speaker, you are not particularly fond 
of,) but for the sake of the weighty instruction that, I flatter 

20 myself, will necessarily result from it. I shall not be longer, 
if I can help it, than so serious a matter requires. 

Permit me then, Sir, to lead your attention very far back ; 
back to the act of navigation ; ^ the corner-stone of the policy 
of this country with regard to its colonies. Sir, that policy 

25 was, from the beginning, purely commercial ; and the com- 
mercial system was wholly restrictive. It was the system of 
a monopoly. No trade was let loose from that constraint, 
but merely to enable the colonists to dispose of what, in the 
course of your trade, you could not take ; or to enable them 

30 to dispose of such articles as we forced upon them, and for 
which, without some degree of Hberty, they could not pay. 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 25 

Hence all your specific and detailed enumerations : hence 
the innumerable checks and counterchecks : hence that in- 
finite variety of paper chains by which you bind together this 
comphcated system of the colonies. This principle of com- 
mercial monopoly runs through no less than twenty-nine acts 5 
of parliament, from the year 1660 to the unfortunate period 
of 1764. 

In all those acts the system of commerce is established, as 
that, from whence alone you proposed to make the colonies 
contribute (I mean directly and by the operation of your 10 
superintending legislative power) to the strength of the em- 
pire. I venture to say, that during that whole period, a 
parliamentary revenue from thence was never once in con- 
templation. Accordingly, in all the number of laws passed 
with regard to the plantations, the words which distinguish 15 
revenue laws, specifically as such, were, I think, premeditately 
avoided. I do not say. Sir, that a form of words alters the 
nature of the law, or abridges the power of the lawgiver. It 
certainly does not. However, titles and formal preambles 
are not always idle words ; and the lawyers frequently argue 20 
from them. I state these facts to show, not what was your 
right, but what has been your settled policy. Our revenue 
laws have usually a title, purporting their being grants ; and 
the words give and grant usually precede the enacting parts. 
Although duties were imposed on America in acts of King 25 
Charles II. and in acts of King William, no one title of giving 
" an aid to his Majesty," or any other of the usual titles to 
revenue acts, was to be found in any of them till 1764 ; nor 
were the words " give and grant " in any preamble until the 
6th of George II. However, the title of this act of George 30 
II., notwithstanding the words of donation, considers it 



26 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 

merely as a regulation of trade, '^ an act for the better secur- 
ing of the trade of his Majesty's sugar colonies in America." 
This act was made on a compromise of all, and at the express 
desire of a part, of the colonies themselves. It was therefore 

5 in some measure with their consent ; and having a title 
directly purporting only a commercial regulation, and being 
in truth nothing more, the words were passed by, at a time 
when no jealousy was entertained, and things were little 
scrutinized. Even Governor Bernard,^ in his second printed 

lo letter, dated in 1763, gives it as his opinion, that " it was an 
act oi prohibition, not of revenue." This is certainly true, 
that no act avowedly for the purpose of revenue, and with 
the ordinary title and recital taken together, is found in the 
statute book until the year 1764. All before this period 

15 stood on commercial regulation and restraint. The scheme 
of a colony revenue by British authority appeared therefore 
to the Americans in the light of a great innovation ; the 
words of Governor Bernard's ninth letter, written in Nov. 
1765, state this idea very strongly; ''it must," says he, 

20 " have been supposed, such an innovation as a parliai7icn- 
tary taxation would cause a great alarm, and meet with much 
opposition in most parts of America ; it was quite new to the 
people, and had no visible bounds set to it." After stating 
the weakness of government there, he says, "was this a time 

25 to introduce so great a novelty as a parliamentary inland 
taxation in America?" Whatever the right might have 
been, this mode of using it was absolutely new in policy and 
practice. 

Sir, they who are friends to the schemes of American rev- 

30 enue say, that the commercial restraint is full as hard a law 
for America to live under. I think so too. I think it, if 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 27 

uncompensated, to be a condition of as rigorous servitude 
as men can be subject to. But America bore it from the 
fundamental act of navigation until 1764. Why? because 
men do bear the inevitable constitution of their original 
nature with all its infirmities. The act of navigation at- 5 
tended the colonies from their infancy, grew with their 
growth, and strengthened with their strength. They were 
confirmed in obedience to it, even more by usage than by 
law. They scarcely had remembered a time when they were 
not subject to such restraint. Besides, they were indemni- 10 
fied for it by a pecuniary compensation. Their monopolist 
happened to be one of the richest men in the world. By 
his immense capital (primarily employed, not for their bene- 
fit, but his own) they were enabled to proceed with their 
fisheries, their agriculture, their ship-building, (and their 15 
trade too within the limits.) in such a manner as got far the 
start of the slow, languid operations of unassisted nature. 
This capital was a hot-bed to them. Nothing in the history 
of mankind is like their progress. For my part, I never cast 
an eye on their flourishing commerce, and their cultivated 20 
and commodious life, but they seem to me rather ancient 
nations grown to perfection through a long series of fortunate 
events, and a train of successful industry, accumulating 
wealth in many centuries, than the colonies of yesterday ; 
than a set of miserable outcasts, a few years ago, not so 25 
much sent as thrown out, on the bleak and barren shore of 
a desolate wilderness, three thousand miles from all civilized 
intercourse. 

All this was done by England, whilst England pursued 
trade, and forgot revenue. You not only acquired com- 30 
merce, but you actually created the very objects of trade in 



28 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

America ; and by that creation you raised the trade of this 
kingdom at least fourfold. America had the compensation 
of your capital, which made her bear her servitude. She 
had another compensation, which you are now going to take 

5 away from her. She had, except the commercial restraint, 
every characteristic mark of a free people in all her internal 
concerns. She had the image of the British constitution. 
She had the substance. She was taxed by her own repre- 
sentatives. She chose most of her own magistrates. She 

10 paid them all. She had in effect the sole disposal of her 
own internal government. This whole state of commercial 
servitude and civil liberty, taken together, is certainly not 
perfect freedom ; but comparing it with the ordinary cir- 
cumstances of human nature, it was a happy and a liberal 

15 condition. 

I know. Sir, that great and not unsuccessful pains have 
been taken to inflame our minds by an outcry, in this House 
and out of it, that in America the act of navigation neither 
is, nor ever was, obeyed. But if you take the colonies 

20 through, I affirm, that its authority never was disputed ; 
that it was nowhere disputed for any length of time ; and, 
on the whole, that it was well observed. Wherever the act 
passed hard, many individuals indeed evaded it. This is 
nothing. These scattered individuals never denied the law, 

25 and never obeyed it. Just as it happens whenever the laws 
of trade, whenever the laws of revenue, press hard upon the 
people in England ; in that case all your shores are full of 
contraband. Your right to give a monopoly to the East 
India Company, your right to lay immense duties on French 

30 brandy, are not disputed in England. You do not make 
this cliarge on any man. But you know that there is not a 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 29 

creek from Pentland Frith to the Isle of Wight, in which 
they do not smuggle immense quantities of teas, East India 
goods, and brandies. I take it for granted, that the authority 
of Governor Bernard in this point is indisputable. Speaking 
of these laws as they regarded that part of America now in 5 
so unhappy a condition, he says, " I beUeve they are no- 
where better supported than in this province ; I do not 
pretend that it is entirely free from a breach of these laws ; 
but that such a breach, if discovered, is justly punished." 
What more can you say of the obedience to any laws in any 10 
country? An obedience to these laws formed the acknowl- 
edgment, instituted by yourselves, for your superiority j and 
was the payment you originally imposed for your protection. 

Whether you were right or wrong in establishing the 
colonies on the principles of commercial monopoly, rather 15 
than on that of revenue, is at this day a problem of mere 
speculation. You cannot have both by the same authority. 
To join together the restraints of an universal internal and 
external monopoly, with an universal internal and external 
taxation, is an unnatural union ; perfect, uncompensated 20 
slavery. You have long since decided for yourself and 
them ; and you and they have prospered exceedingly under 
that decision. 

This nation. Sir, never thought of departing from that 
choice until the period immediately on the close of the 25 
last war. Then a scheme of government new in many 
things seemed to have been adopted. I saw, or I thought 
I saw, several symptoms of a great change, whilst I sat in 
your gallery, a good while before I had the honour of a seat 
in this House. At that period the necessity was estabhshed 30 
of keeping up no less than twenty new regiments, with 



30 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

twenty colonels capable of seats in this House. This 
scheme was adopted with very general applause from all 
sides, at the very time that, by your conquests in America, 
your danger from foreign attempts in that part of the 

5 world was much lessened, or indeed rather quite over. 
When this huge increase of military establishment was 
resolved on, a revenue was to be found to support so great 
a burthen. Country gentlemen, the great patrons of econ- 
omy, and the great resisters of a standing armed force, 

10 would not have entered with much alacrity into the vote 
for so large and so expensive an army, if they had been 
very sure that they were to continue to pay for it. But 
hopes of another kind were held out to them ; and in par- 
ticular, I well remember, that Mr. Townshend, in a brilliant 

15 harangue on this subject, did dazzle them, by playing 
before their eyes the image of a revenue to be raised in 
America. 

Here began to dawn the first glimmerings of this new 
colony system. It appeared more distinctly afterwards, 

20 when it was devolved upon a person to whom, on other 
accounts, this country owes very great obligations. I do 
beheve, that he had a very serious desire to benefit the 
public. But with no small study of the detail, he did not 
seem to have his view, at least equally, carried to the total 

25 circuit of our affairs. He generally considered his objects 
in lights that were rather too detached. Whether the busi- 
ness of an American revenue was imposed upon him 
altogether; whether it was entirely the result of his own 
speculation ; or, what is more probable, that his own ideas 
rather coincided with the instructions he had received ; 
certain it is, that, with the best intentions in the world, he 



30 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 31 

first brought this fatal scheme into form, and estabhshed it 
by act of parUament. 

No man can believe, that at this time of day I mean to 
lean on the venerable memory of a great man, whose loss 
we deplore in common. Our little patty diiferences have 5 
been long ago composed ; and I have acted more with him, 
and certainly with more pleasure with him, than ever I 
acted against him. Undoubtedly Mr. Grenville was a first- 
rate figure in this country. With a masculine understand- 
ing, and a stout and resolute heart, he had an application 10 
undissipated and unwearied. He took pubHc business, not 
as a duty which he was to fulfil, but as a pleasure he was 
to enjoy ; and he seemed to have no delight out of this 
House, except in such things as some way related to the 
business that was to be done within it. If he was ambi- 15 
tious, I will say this for him, his ambition was of a noble 
and generous strain. It was to raise himself, not by the 
low, pimping politics of a court, but to win his way to 
power, through the laborious gradations of public service ; 
and to secure to himself a well-earned rank in parliament, 20 
by a thorough knowledge of its constitution, and a perfect 
practice in all its business. 

Sir, if such a man fell into errors, it must be from defects 
not intrinsical ; they must be rather sought in the particular 
habits of his hfe ; which, though they do not alter the ground- 25 
work of character, yet tinge it with their own hue. He was 
bred in a profession. He was bred to the law, which is, in 
my opinion, one of the first and noblest of human sciences ; 
a science which does more to quicken and invigorate the 
understanding, than all the other kinds of learning put to- 30 
gether ; but it is not apt, except in persons very happily 



32 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

born, to open and to liberalize the mind exactly in the same 
proportion. Passing from that study he did not go very 
largely into the world ; but plunged into business ; I mean 
mto the business of office ; and the limited and fixed 

5 methods and forms established there. Much knowledge is 
to be had undoubtedly in that fine ; and there is no knowl- 
edge which is not valuable. But it may be truly said, that 
men too much conversant in office are rarely minds of 
remarkable enlargement. Their habits of office are apt to 

10 give them a turn to think the substance of business not 
to be much more important than the forms in which it is 
conducted. These forms are adapted to ordinary occa- 
sions ; and therefore persons who are nurtured in office do 
admirably well as long as things go on in their common 

15 order ; but when the high roads are broken up, and the 
waters out, when a new and troubled scene is opened, and 
the file affords no precedent, then it is that a greater 
knowledge of mankind, and a far more extensive compre- 
hension of things, is requisite, than ever office gave, or than 

20 office can ever give.^ Mr. Grenville thought better of the 
wisdom and power of human legislation than in truth it 
deserves. He conceived, and many conceived along with 
him, that the flourishing trade of this country was greatly 
owing to law and institution, and not quite so much to 

25 liberty ; for but too many are apt to believe regulation to be 
commerce, and taxes to be revenue. Among regulations, 
that which stood first in reputation was his idol. I mean 
the act of navigation. He has often professed it to be so. 
The policy of that act is, I readily admit, in many respects, 

30 well understood. But I do say, that if the act be suffered 
to run the full length of its principle, and is not changed 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION Zl 

and modified according to the change of times and the 
fluctuation of circumstances, it must do great mischief, and 
frequently even defeat its own purpose. 

After the war, and in the last years of it, the trade of 
America had increased far beyond the speculations of the 5 
most sanguine imaginations. It swelled out on every side. 
It filled all its proper channels to the brim. It overflowed 
with a rich redundance, and breaking its banks on the right 
and on the left, it spread out upon some places where it was 
indeed improper, upon others where it was only irregular. 10 
It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact ; and great 
trade will always be attended with considerable abuses. The 
contraband will always keep pace in some measure with the 
fair trade. It should stand as a fundamental maxim, that no 
vulgar precaution ought to be employed in the cure of evils, 15 
which are closely connected with the cause of our prosperity. 
Perhaps this great person turned his eyes somewhat less 
than was just towards the incredible increase of the fair 
trade ; and looked with something of too exquisite a jealousy 
towards the contraband. He certainly felt a singular degree 20 
of anxiety on the subject; and even began to act from that 
passion earlier than is commonly imagined. For whilst he 
was first lord of the admiralty, though not strictly called 
upon in his official line, he presented a very strong memorial 
to the lords of the treasury, (my Lord Bute was then at the 25 
head of the board,) heavily complaining of the growth of the 
illicit commerce in America. Some mischief happened even 
at that time from this over-earnest zeal. Much greater hap- 
pened afterwards, when it operated with greater power in 
the highest department of the finances. The bonds of the 30 
act of navigation were straitened so much, that America was 



34 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

on the point of having no trade, either contraband or legiti- 
mate. They found, under the construction and execution 
then used, the act no longer tying, but actually strangling 
them. All this coming with new enumerations of commod- 

5 ities ; with regulations which in a manner put a stop to the 
mutual coasting intercourse of the colonies ; with the ap- 
pointment of courts of admiralty^ under various improper 
circumstances ; with a sudden extinction of the paper cur- 
rencies ;2 with a compulsory provision for the quartering of 

lo soldiers ; the people of America thought themselves pro- 
ceeded against as delinquents, or, at best, as people under 
suspicion of delinquency; and in such a manner as, they 
imagined, their recent services in the war did not at all merit.^ 
Any of these innumerable regulations, perhaps, would not 

15 have alarmed alone ; some might be thought reasonable ; the 
multitude struck them with terror. 

But the grand manoeuvre in that business of new regulat- 
ing the colonies, was the 15th act of the fourth of George 
III. ; which, besides containing several of the matters to 

20 which I have just alluded, opened a new principle ; and here 
properly began the second period of the policy of this coun- 
try with regard to the colonies ; by which the scheme of a 
regular plantation parliamentary revenue was adopted in 
theory, and settled in practice. A revenue not substituted 

25 in the place of, but superadded to, a monopoly; which 
monopoly was enforced at the same time with additional 
strictness, and the execution put into mihtary hands. 

This act, Sir, had for the first time the title of " granting 
duties in the colonies and plantations of America ; " and for 

30 the first time it was asserted in the preamble, " that it was 
just and necessary that a revenue should be raised there." 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 35 

Then came the technical words of "givmg and granting," 
and thus a complete American revenue act was made in all 
the forms, and with a full avowal of the right, equity, policy, 
and even necessity of taxing the colonies, without any formal 
consent of theirs. There are contained also in the preamble 5 
to that act these very remarkable words — the commons, etc. 
— "being desirous to make some provision in the present 
session of parhament towards raising the said revenue." By 
these words it appeared to the colonies, that this act was 
but a beginning of sorrows ; that every session was to pro- 10 
duce something of the same kind ; that we were to go on, 
from day to day, in charging them with such taxes as we 
pleased, for such a military force as we should think proper. 
Had this plan been pursued, it was evident that the provin- 
cial assemblies, in which the Americans felt all their portion 15 
of importance, and beheld their sole image of freedom, were 
ipso facto annihilated. This ill prospect before them seemed 
to be boundless in extent, and endless in duration. Sir, they 
were not mistaken. The ministry valued themselves when 
this act passed, and when they gave notice of the stamp act, 20 
that both of the duties came very short of their ideas of 
American taxation. Great was the applause of this measure 
here. In England we cried out for new taxes on America, 
whilst they cried out that they were nearly crushed with 
those which the war and their own grants had brought upon 25 
them. 

Sir, it has been said in the debate, that when the first 
American revenue act (the act in 1 764, imposing the port 
duties) passed, the Americans did not object to the principle.^ 
It is true they touched it but very tenderly. It was not a 30 
direct attack. They were, it is true, as yet novices ; as yet 



36 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

unaccustomed to direct attacks upon any of the rights of 
parliament. The duties were port duties, hke those they had 
been accustomed to bear ; with this difference, that the title 
was not the same, the preamble not the same, and the spirit 

5 altogether unHke. But of what service is this observation to 
the cause of those that make it ? It is a full refutation of the 
pretence for their present cruelty to America ; for it shows, 
out of their own mouths, that our colonies were backward to 
enter into the present vexatious and ruinous controversy. 

lo There is also another circulation abroad, (spread with a 
malignant intention, which I cannot attribute to those who 
say the same thing in this House,) that Mr. Grenville gave 
the colony agents an option for their assembhes to tax them- 
selves, which they had refused. I find that much stress is 

15 laid on this, as a fact. However, it happens neither to be 
true nor possible. I will observe first, that Mr. Grenville 
never thought fit to make this apology for himself in the 
innumerable debates that were had upon the subject. He 
might have proposed to the colony agents, that they should 

20 agree in some mode of taxation as the ground of an act of 
parliament. But he never could have proposed that they 
should tax themselves on requisition, which is the assertion 
of the day. Indeed, Mr. Grenville well knew, that the 
colony agents could have no general powers to consent to it ; 

25 and they had no time to consult their assemblies for particular 
powers, before he passed his first revenue act. If you com- 
pare dates, you will find it impossible. Burthened as the 
agents knew the colonies were at that time, they could not 
give the least hope of such grants. His own favourite gov- 

30 ernor was of opinion that the Americans were not then tax- 
able objects : 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 37 

'^ Nor was the time less favotwabk to the equity of such a 
taxation. I don't mean to disputa the reasonableness of 
Amei'ica contributing to the charges of Great Britain when 
she is able ; nor, I believe, would the Americans themselves 
have disputed it, at a proper time and season. But it should 5 
be considered that the American governfnents themselves have, 
in the prosecution of the late war, contracted very large debts; 
which it will take some years to pay off, and in the mean time 
occasion very burdensome taxes for that purpose only. For 
instance, this government, which is as much beforehand as 10 
any, raises every year ^^il^^^^ sterling for sinking their debt, 
and must contimie it for four years longer at least before it 
will be clear.'' 

These are the words of Governor Bernard's letter to a 
member of the old ministry, and which he has since printed. 15 
Mr. Grenville could not have made this proposition to the 
agents, for another reason. He was of opinion, which he has 
declared in this House an hundred times, that the colonies 
could not legally grant any revenue to the crown ; and that 
infinite mischiefs would be the consequence of such a power. 20 
When Mr. Grenville had passed the first revenue act, and in 
the same session had made this House come to a resolution 
for laying a stamp duty on America, between that time and 
the passing the stamp act into a law, he told a considerable 
and most respectable merchant, a member of this House, 25 
whom I am truly sorry I do not now see in his place, when 
he represented against this proceeding, that if the stamp duty 
was disliked, he was willing to exchange it for any other 
equally productive ; but that, if he objected to the Americans 
being taxed by parliament, he might save himself the trouble 30 
of the discussion, as he was determined on the measure. 



38 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

This is the fact, and, if you please, I will mention a very 
unquestionable authority for it. 

Thus, Sir, I have disposed of this falsehood. But false- 
hood has a perennial spring. It is said, that no conjecture 

5 could be made of the dislike of the colonies to the principle. 
This is as untrue as the other. After the resolution of the 
House, and before the passing of the stamp act, the colonies 
of Massachusetts Bay and New York did send remonstrances, 
objecting to this mode of parliamentary taxation. What was 

10 the consequence ? They were suppressed ; they were put 
under the table, notwithstanding an order of council to the 
contrary, by the ministry which composed the very council 
that had made the order : and thus the House proceeded 
to its business of taxing without the least regular knowledge 

15 of the objections which were made to it. But to give that 
House its due, it was not over-desirous to receive informa- 
tion, or to hear remonstrance. On the 15th of February, 
1 765, whilst the stamp act was under deliberation, they re- 
fused with scorn even so much as to receive four petitions 

20 presented from so respectable colonies as Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, Virginia, and Carolina ; besides one from the traders 
of Jamaica. As to the colonies, they had no alternative left 
to them, but to disobey ; or to pay the taxes imposed by 
that parliament which was not suffered, or did not suffer 

25 itself, even to hear them remonstrate upon the subject. 

This was the state of the colonies before his Majesty 
thought fit to change his ministers. It stands upon no 
authority of mine. It is proved by uncontrovertible records. 
The honourable gentleman has desired some of us to lay our 

? hands upon our hearts, and answer to his queries upon the 
historical part of this consideration ; and by his manner (as 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 39 

well as my eyes could discern it) he seemed to address him- 
self to me. 

Sir, I will answer him as clearly as I am able, and with 
great openness ; I have nothing to conceal. In the year 
sixty-five, being in a very private station, far enough from 5 
any line of business, and not having the honour of a seat in 
this House, it was my fortune, unknowing and unknown to 
the then ministry, by the intervention of a common friend, 
to become connected with a very noble person, and at the 
head of the treasury department. It was indeed in a situa- 10 
tion^ of little rank and no consequence, suitable to the medi- 
ocrity of my talents and pretensions. But a situation near 
enough to enable me to see, as well as others, what was going 
on ; and I did see in that noble person such sound principles, 
such an enlargement of mind, such clear and sagacious sense, 15 
and such unshaken fortitude, as have bound me, as well as 
others much better than me, by an inviolable attachment to 
him from that time forward. Sir, Lord Rockingham very 
early in that summer received a strong representation from 
many weighty English merchants and manufacturers, from 20 
governors of provinces and commanders of men of war, 
against almost the whole of the American commercial regu- 
lations : and particularly with regard to the total ruin which 
was threatened to the Spanish trade. I believe. Sir, the 
noble lord soon saw his way in this business. But he did 25 
not rashly determine against acts which it might be supposed 
were the result of much deliberation. However, Sir, he 
scarcely began to open the ground, when the whole veteran 
body of office took the alarm. A violent outcry of all (ex- 
cept those who knew and felt the mischief) was raised against 30 
any alteration. On one hand, his attempt was a direct vio- 



40 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 

lation of treaties and public law ; on the other, the act of 
navigation and all the corps of trade laws were drawn up in 
array against it. 

The first step the noble lord took, was to have the opinion 

5 of his excellent, learned, and ever-lamented friend the late 
Mr. Yorke/ then attorney-general, on the point of law. 
When he knew that formally and officially, which in sub- 
stance he had known before, he immediately despatched 
orders to redress the grievance. But I will say it for the 

10 then minister, he is of that constitution of mind, that I know 
he would have issued, on the same critical occasion, the very 
same orders, if the acts of trade had been, as they were not, 
directly against him ; and would have cheerfully submitted 
to the equity of parliament for his indemnity. 

15 On the conclusion of this business of the Spanish trade, 
the news of the troubles, on account of the stamp act, arrived 
in England. It was not until the end of October that these 
accounts were received. No sooner had the sound of that 
mighty tempest reached us in England, than the whole of 

20 the then opposition, instead of feeling humbled by the un- 
happy issue of their measures, seemed to be infinitely elated, 
and cried out, that the ministry, from envy to the glory of 
their predecessors, were prepared to repeal the stamp act. 
Near nine years after, the honourable gentleman takes quite 

25 opposite ground, and now challenges me to put my hand to 
my heart, and say, whether the ministry had resolved on the 
repeal till a considerable time after the meeting of parlia- 
ment. Though I do not very well know what the honour- 
able gentleman wishes to infer from the admission, or from 

30 the denial, of this fact, on which he so earnestly adjures me ; 
I do put my hand on my heart, and assure him, that they did 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 41 

not come to a resolution directly to repeal. They weighed 
this matter as its difficulty and importance required. They 
considered maturely among themselves. They consulted 
with all who could give advice or information. It was not 
determined until a Httle before the meeting of parliament ; 5 
but it was determined, and the main lines of their own plan 
marked out, before that meeting. Two questions arose — 
(I hope I am not going into a narrative troublesome to the 
House) — 

[A cry of, Go on, go on.] 10 

The first of the two considerations was, whether the repeal 
should be total, or whether only partial ; taking out every- 
thing burthensome and productive, and reserving only an 
empty acknowledgment, such as a stamp on cards or dice. 
The other question was, on what principle the act should be 15 
repealed? On this head also two principles were started. 
One, that the legislative rights of this country, with regard 
to America, were not entire, but had certain restrictions and 
limitations. The other principle was, that taxes of this kind 
were contrary to the fundamental principles of commerce on 20 
which the colonies were founded ; and contrary to every idea 
of political equity ; by which equity we ar.e bound, as much 
as possible, to extend the spirit and benefit of the British 
constitution to every part of the British dominions. The 
option, both of the m.easure, and of the principle of repeal, 25 
was made before the session j and I wonder how any one can 
read the king's speech at the opening of that session, without 
seeing in that speech both the repeal and the declaratory 
act very sufficiently crayoned out. Those who cannot see 
this can see nothing. 3^ 

Surely the honourable gentleman will not think that a 



42 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 

great deal less time than was then employed ought to have 
been spent in deliberation, when he considers that the news 
of the troubles did not arrive till towards the end of October. 
The parliament sat to fill the vacancies on the 14th day of 

5 December, and on business the 14th of the following January. 
Sir, a partial repeal, or, as the bon ton of the court then 
was, a modification^ would have satisfied a timid, unsystem- 
atic, procrastinating ministry, as such a measure has since 
done such a ministry. A modification is the constant re- 

10 source of weak, undeciding minds. To repeal by the denial 
of our right to tax in the preamble, (and this too did not 
want advisers,) would have cut, in the heroic style, the 
Gordian knot with a sword. Either measure would have 
cost no more than a day's debate. But when the total re- 

15 peal was adopted ; and adopted on principles of policy, of 
equity, and of commerce ; this plan made it necessary to 
enter into many and difficult measures. It became necessary 
to open a very large field of evidence commensurate to these 
extensive views. But then this labor did knight's service. 

20 It opened the eyes of several to the true state of the Amer- 
ican affairs ; it enlarged their ideas ; it removed prejudices ; 
and it conciliated the opinions and affections of men. The 
noble lord, who then took the lead in administration, my 
honourable friend ' under me, and a right honourable gentle- 

25 man,- (if he will not reject his share, and it was a large one, 
of this business,) exerted the most laudable industry in bring- 
ing before you the fullest, most impartial, and least garbled 
body of evidence that ever was produced to this House. I 
think the inquiry lasted in the committee for six weeks ; 

30 and, at its conclusion, this House, by an independent, noble, 
spirited, and unexpected majority; by a majority that will 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 43 

redeem all the acts ever done by majorities in parliament ; 
in the teeth of all the old mercenary Swiss of state, in de- 
spite of all the speculators and augurs of political events, in 
defiance of the whole embattled legion of veteran pensioners 
and practised instruments of a court, gave a total repeal to 5 
the stamp act, and (if it had been so permitted) a lasting 
peace to this whole empire. 

I state, Sir, these particulars, because this act of spirit and 
fortitude has lately been, in the circulation of the season, 
and in some hazarded declamations in this House, attributed 10 
to timidity. If, Sir, the conduct of ministry, in proposing 
the repeal, had arisen from timidity with regard to them- 
selves, it would have been greatly to be condemned. Inter- 
ested timidity disgraces as much in the cabinet, as personal 
timidity does in the field. But timidity, with regard to the 15 
well-being of our country, is heroic virtue. The noble lord 
who then conducted affairs, and his worthy colleagues, whilst 
they trembled at the prospect of such distresses as you have 
since brought upon yourselves, were not afraid steadily to 
look in the face that glaring and dazzling influence at which 20 
the eyes of eagles have blenched. He looked in the face 
one of the ablest, and, let me say, not the most scrupulous, 
oppositions, that perhaps ever was in this House ; and with- 
stood it, unaided by even one of the usual supports of ad- 
ministration. He did this when he repealed the stamp act. 25 
He looked in the face of a person he had long respected and 
regarded, and whose aid was then particularly wanting ; I 
mean Lord Chatham. He did this when he passed the 
declaratory act. 

It is now given out for the usual purposes by the usual 30 
emissaries, that Lord Rockingham did not consent to the 



44 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

repeal of this act until he was buUied into it by Lord Chat- 
ham ; and the reporters have gone so far as publicly to assert, 
in a hundred companies, that the honourable gentleman 
under the gallery ^ who proposed the repeal in the American 

5 committee, had another set of resolutions in his pocket 
directly the reverse of those he moved. These artificers of 
a desperate cause are at this time spread abroad, with incred- 
ible care, in every part of the town, from the highest to the 
lowest companies ; as if the industry of the circulation were 

lo to make amends for the absurdity of the report. 

Sir, whether the noble lord is of a complexion to be bullied 
by Lord Chatham, or by any man, I must submit to those 
who know him. I confess, when I look back to that time, I 
consider him as placed in one of the most trying situations in 

15 which, perhaps, any man ever stood. In the House of Peers 
there were very few of the ministry, out of the noble lord's 
own particular connexion, (except Lord Egmont, who acted, 
as far as I could discern, an honourable and manly part,) 
that did not look to some other future arrangement, which 

20 warped his politics. There were in both Houses new and 
menacing appearances, that might very naturally drive any 
other, than a most resolute minister, from his measure or 
from his station. The household troops openly revolted. 
The allies of ministry (those, I mean, who supported some 

25 of their measures, but refused responsibility for any) endeav- 
oured to undermine their credit, and to take ground that 
must be fatal to the success of the very cause which they 
would be thought to countenance. The question of the re- 
peal was brought on by ministry in the committee of this 

30 House, in the very instant when it was known that more 
than one court negotiation was carrying on with the heads of 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 45 

the opposition. Everythiug, upon every side, was full of traps 
and mines. Earth below shook ; heaven above menaced ; 
all the elements of ministerial safety were dissolved. It was 
in the midst of this chaos of plots and counter-plots ; it was 
in the midst of this complicated warfare against public op- 5 
position and private treachery, that the firmness of that 
noble person was put to the proof. He never stirred from 
his ground ; no, not an inch. He remained fixed and deter- 
mined, in principle, in measure, and in conduct. He prac- 
tised no managements. He secured no retreat. He sought 10 
no apology.^ 

I will likewise do justice, I ought to do it, to the honour- 
able gentleman who led us in this House. Far from the 
duplicity wickedly charged on him, he acted his part with 
alacrity and resolution. We all felt inspired by the example 15 
he gave us, down even to myself, the weakest in that pha- 
lanx. I declare for one, I knew well enough (it could not 
be concealed from anybody) the true state of things ; but, 
in my life, I never came with so much spirits into this 
House. It was a time for a man to act in. We had power- 20 
ful enemies ; but we had faithful and determined friends ; 
and a glorious cause. We had a great battle to fight ; but 
we had the means of fighting ; not as now, when our arms 
are tied behind us. We did fight that day, and conquer. 

I remember. Sir, with a melancholy pleasure, the situation 25 
of the honourable gentleman who made the motion for the 
repeal; in that crisis, when the whole trading interest of 
this empire, crammed into your lobbies, with a trembling 
and anxious expectation, waited, almost to a winter's return 
of light, their fate from your resolutions. When, at length, 30 
you had determined in their favour, and your doors, thrown 



46 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

open, showed them the figure of their dehverer in the well- 
earned triumph of his important victory, from the whole of 
that grave multitude there arose an involuntary burst of 
gratitude and transport. They jumped upon him like chil- 

5 dren on a long absent father. They clung about him as 
captives about their redeemer. All England, all America, 
joined to his applause. Nor did he seem insensible to the 
best of all earthly rewards, the love and admiration of his 
fellow-citizens. Hope elevated and joy brightened his ei'est. 

10 I stood near him ; and his face, to use the expression of the 
Scripture of the first martyr, '' his face was as if it had been 
the face of an angel." I do not know how others feel ; but 
if I had stood in that situation, I never would have ex- 
changed it for all that kings in their profusion could bestow. 

15 I did hope that that day's danger and honour would have 
been a bond to hold us all together for ever. But, alas 1 
that, with other pleasing visions, is long since vanished.^ 

Sir, this act of supreme magnanimity has been repre- 
sented, as if it had been a measure of an administration, that 

20 having no scheme of their own, took a middle Hne, pilfered 
a bit from one side and a bit from the other. Sir, they 
took 710 middle Hnes. They differed fundamentally from the 
schemes of both parties ; but they preserved the objects of 
both. They preserved the authority of Great Britain. They 

25 preserved the equity of Great Britain. They made the 
declaratory act; they repealed the stamp act. They did 
both/////i'; because the declaratory act was withoict qualifi- 
cation ; and the repeal of the stamp act total. This they 
did in the situation I have described. 

30 Now, Sir, what will the adversary say to both these acts ? 
If the principle of the declaratory act was not good, the 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 47 

principle we are contending for this day is monstrous. If 
the principle of the repeal was not good, why are we not at 
war for a real, substantial, effective revenue ? If both were 
bad, why has this ministry incurred all the inconveniencies 
of both and of all schemes? Why have they enacted, re- 5 
pealed, enforced, yielded, and now attempt to enforce 
again ? 

Sir, I think I may as well now, as at any other time, speak 
to a certain matter of fact, not wholly unrelated to the ques- 
tion under your consideration. We, who would persuade 10 
you to revert to the ancient policy of this kingdom, labour 
under the effect of this short current phrase, which the court 
leaders have given out to all their corps, in order to take 
away the credit of those who would prevent you from that 
frantic war you are going to wage upon your colonies. 15 
Their cant is this ; " All the disturbances in America have 
been created by the repeal of the stamp act." I suppress 
for a moment my indignation at the falsehood, baseness, and 
absurdity of this most audacious assertion. Instead of re- 
marking on the motives and character of those who have 20. 
issued it for circulation, I will clearly lay before you the state 
of America, antecedently to that repeal ; after the repeal ; 
and since the renewal of the schemes of American taxation. 

It is said, that the disturbances, if there were any, before 
the repeal, were slight ; and without difficulty or inconven- 25 
ience might have been suppressed. For an answer to this 
assertion I will send you to the great author and patron of 
the stamp act, who certainly meaning well to the authority 
of this country, and fully apprized of the state of that, made, 
before a repeal was so much as agitated in this House, the 30 
motion which is on your journals ; and which, to save the 



48 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

clerk the trouble of turning to it, I will now read to you. 
It was for an amendment to the address of the 17th of 
December, 1765 : 

" To express our just resentment and indignation at the 

5 outrages, tumults, and insurrections which have been excited 
and carried on in North America; and at the i-esistance 
given, by open and rebellious force, to the execution of the 
laws in that part of his Majesty's do?ninions. And to assure 
his Majesty, that his faithful commons, animated with the 

10 warmest duty and attachment to his royal person and gov- 
er7iment, will firmly and effectually support his Majesty in all 
such measures as shall be necessary for preserving and sup- 
porting the legal dependence of the colonies ofi the mother 
country,''^ &c. &c. 

15 Here was certainly a disturbance preceding the repeal ; 
such a disturbance as Mr. Grenville thought necessary to 
qualify by the name of an insurrection, and the epithet of 
a rebellious force : terms much stronger than any by which 
those, who then supported his motion, have ever since thought 

20 proper to distinguish the subsequent, disturbances in Amer- 
ica. They were disturbances which seemed to him and his 
friends to justify as strong a promise of support, as hath been 
usual to give in the beginning of a war with the most power- 
ful and declared enemies. When the accounts of the Amer- 

25 ican governors came before the "House, they appeared 
stronger even than the warmth of public imagination had 
painted them ; so much stronger, that the papers on your 
table bear me out in saying, that all the late disturbances, 
which have been at one time the minister's motives for the 

30 repeal of five out of six of the new court taxes, and are 
now his pretences for refusing to repeal that sixth, did not 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 49 

amount — why do I compare them? — no, not to a tenth 
part of the tumults and violence which prevailed long before 
the repeal of that act. 

Ministry cannot refuse the authority of the commander in 
chief, General Gage, who, in his letter of the 4th of Novem- 5 
ber, from New York, thus represents the state of things : 

^^ It is difficult to say, from the highest to the lowest, who 
has not been accessory to this insurrection, either by writing 
or mutual agreements, to oppose the act, by what they a^-e 
pleased to term all legal apposition to it. Nothing effectual 10 
has been proposed, either to prevent or quell the tumult. 
The rest of the provinces are in the same situation as to a 
positive refusal to take the stamps ; and threatening those 
who shall take them, to plunder and murder them ; and this 
affair stands in all the provinces, that unless the act, fro7n 15 
its 0W71 nature, enforce itself, nothing but a very considerable 
military force can do it.'' 

It is remarkable. Sir, 'that the persons who formerly 
trumpeted forth the most loudly, the violent resolutions of 
assembhes ; the universal insurrections ; the seizing and 20 
burning the stamped papers ; the forcing stamp officers to 
resign their commissions under the gallows ; the rifling and 
pulling down of the houses of magistrates ; and the expul- 
sion from their country of all who dared to write or speak 
a single word in defence of the powers of parliament ; 25 
these very trumpeters are now the men that represent the 
whole as a mere trifle ; and choose to date all the disturb- 
ances from the repeal of the stamp act, which put an end to 
them. Hear your officers abroad, and let them refute this 
shameful falsehood, who, in all their correspondence, state 30 
the disturbances as owing to their true causes, the discontent 



50 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

of the people, from the taxes. You have this evidence in 
your own archives — and it will give you complete satisfac- 
tion ; if you are not so far lost to all parliamentary ideas of 
information, as rather to credit the lie of the day, than the 

5 records of your own House. 

Sir, this vermin of court reporters, when they are forced 
into day upon one point, are sure to burrow in another ; but 
they shall have no refuge ; I will make them bolt out of all 
their holes. Conscious that they must be baffled, when they 

10 attribute a precedent disturbance to a subsequent measure, 
they take other ground, almost as absurd, but very common 
in modern practice, and very wicked ; which is, to attribute 
the ill-effect of ill-judged conduct to the arguments which 
had been used to dissuade us from it. They say, that the 

15 opposition made in parliament to the stamp act at the time 
of its passing, encouraged the Americans to their resistance. 
This has even formally appeared in print in a regular volume, 
from an advocate of that faction, a Dr. Tucker. This Dr. 
Tucker is already a dean, and his earnest labors in this 

20 vineyard will, I suppose, raise him to a bishopric.^ But this 
assertion too, just hke the rest, is false. In all the papers 
which have loaded your table ; in all the vast crowd of verbal 
witnesses that appeared at your bar, witnesses which were 
indiscriminately produced from both sides of the House ; not 

25 the least hint of such a cause of disturbance has ever ap- 
peared. As to the fact of a strenuous opposition to the stamp 
act, I sat as a stranger in your gallery when the act was 
under consideration. Far from anything inflammatory, I 
never heard a more languid debate in this House. No more 

30 than two or three gentlemen, as I remember, spoke against 
the act, and that with great reserve, and remarkable temper. 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 51 

There was but one division in the whole progress of the bill ; 
and the minority did not reach to more than 39 or 40. In 
the House of Lords I do not recollect that there was any 
debate or division at all. I am sure there was no protest. 
In fact, the affair passed with so very, very Httle noise, that 5 
in town they scarcely knew the nature of what you were 
doing. The opposition to the bill in England never could 
have done this mischief, because there scarcely ever was less 
of opposition to a bill of consequence. 

Sir, the agents and distributors of falsehoods have, with 10 
their usual industry, circulated another He of the same 
nature with the former. It is this, that the disturbances 
arose from the account which had been received in America 
of the change in the ministry. No longer awed, it seems, 
with the spirit of the former rulers, they thought themselves ^5 
a match for what our calumniators chose to qualify by the 
name of so feeble a ministry as succeeded. Feeble in one 
sense these men certainly may be called ; for, with all their 
efforts, and they have made many, they have not been able 
to resist the distempered vigour, and insane alacrity, with 20 
which you are rushing to your ruin. But it does so happen, 
that the falsity of this circulation is (like the rest) demon- 
strated by indisputable dates and records. 

So Httle was the change known in America, that the 
letters of your governors, giving an account of these dis- 25 
turbances long after they had arrived at their highest pitch, 
were all directed to the old mimst?y, and particularly to the 
Earl of Bali/ax, the secretary of state corresponding with 
the colonies, without once in the smallest degree intimating 
the slightest suspicion of any ministerial revolution what- 30 
soever. The ministry was not changed in England until 



52 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

the loth day of July, 1765. On the 14th of the preceding 
June, Governor Fauquier from Virginia writes thus ; and 
writes thus to the Earl of Halifax : " Government is set at 
defiance, not having strength enough in her hands to enforce 

5 obedience to the laws of the community. The private distress 
which every man feels, increases the general dissatisfaction 
at the duties laid by the stamp act, ivhich breaks out and 
shows itself upon every trifling occasion.''^ The general 
dissatisfaction had produced some time before, that is, on 

10 the 29th of May, several strong public resolves against the 
stamp act ; and those resolves are assigned by Governor 
Bernard as the cause of the insurrections in Massachusetts 
Bay, in his letter of the 15th of August, still addressed to 
the Earl of Halifax ; and he continued to address such 

15 accounts to that minister quite to the 7th of September of 
the same year. Similar accounts, and of as late a date, 
were sent from other governors, and all directed to Lord 
Halifax. Not one of these letters indicates the shghtest 
idea of a change, either known, or even apprehended. 

20 Thus are blown away the insect race of courtly falsehoods ! 
thus perish the miserable inventions of the wretched run- 
ners for a wretched cause, which they have fly-blown into 
every weak and rotten part of the country, in vain hopes 
that when their maggots had taken wing, their importunate 

25 buzzing might sound something like the public voice I 

Sir, I have troubled you sufficiently with the state of 
America before the repeal. Now I turn to the honourable 
gentleman who so stoutly challenges us to tell, whether, 
after the repeal, the provinces were quiet? This is coming 

30 home to the point. Here I meet him directly ; and answer 
most readily, They were quiet. And I, in my turn, challenge 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 53 

him to prove when, and where, and by whom, and in what 
numbers, and with what violence, the other laws of trade, as 
gentlemen assert, were violated in consequence of your con- 
cession ? or that even your other revenue laws were attacked ? 
But I quit the vantage-ground on which I stand, and where 5 
I might leave the burthen of the proof upon him : I walk 
down upon the open plain, and undertake to show, that 
they were not only quiet, but showed many unequivocal 
marks of acknowledgment and gratitude. And to give him 
every advantage, I select the obnoxious colony of Massa- 10 
chusetts Bay, which at this time (but without hearing her) 
is so heavily a culprit before parliament — I will select their 
proceedings even under circumstances of no small irritation. 
For, a litde imprudently, I must say, Governor Bernard 
mixed in the administration of the lenitive of the repeal no 15 
small acrimony arising from matters of a separate nature. 
Yet see, Sir, the effect of that lenitive, though mixed with 
these bitter ingredients ; and how this rugged people can 
express themselves on a measure of concession. 

^^ If it is not ill oitr power, ^'' (say they in their address to 20 
Governor Bernard,) ^^ in so full a manner as loill be expected, 
to shoiv our 7'espectful gratitude to the mother country, or to 
make a dutiful and affectionate return to the indulgence of 
the king and parliament, it shall be no fault of ours ; for 
this we intend, and hope we shall be able fully to effect'"' 25 

Would to God that this temper had been cultivated, man- 
aged, and set in action ! other effects than those which we 
have since felt would have resulted from it. On the requisi- 
tion for compensation to those who had suffered from the 
violence of the populace, in the same address they say, " The 30 
recommendation enjoined by Air. Secretary Conway's letter, 



54 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION \ 

\ 

and in consequence thej-eof made to us^ we will embrace the 
first conveiiient opportu?iity to consider and act ttpon.^'' They 
did consider ; they did act upon it. They obeyed the requi- 
sition. I know the mode has been chicaned upon ; but it 

5 was substantially obeyed ; and much better obeyed than I 
fear the parliamentary requisition of this session will be, 
though enforced by all your rigour, and backed with all your 
power. In a word, the damages of popular fury were com- 
pensated by legislative gravity. Almost every other part of 

lo America in various ways demonstrated their gratitude. I 
am bold to say, that so sudden a calm recovered after so 
violent a storm is without parallel in history. To say that 
no other disturbance should happen from any other cause, is 
folly. But as far as appearances went, by the judicious sacri- 

15 fice of one law, you procured an acquiescence in all that 
remained. After this experience, nobody shall persuade me, 
when a whole people are concerned, that acts of lenity are 
not means of conciliation. 

I hope the honourable gentleman has received a fair and 

20 full answer to his question. 

I have done with the third period of your policy ; that of 
your repeal ; and the return of your ancient system, and 
your ancient tranquillity and concord. Sir, this period was 
not as long as it was happy. Another scene was opened, 

25 and other actors appeared on the stage. The state, in the 
condition I have described it, was delivered into the hands 
of Lord Chatham — a great and celebrated name ; a name 
that keeps the name of this country respectable in every 
other on the globe. It may be truly called, 

3° Clariim et venerabile no77ien ^ 

Gentibus^ et inn Hum nostrce quod proderat urbi. 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 55 

Sir, the venerable age of this great man, his merited rank, 
his superior eloquence, his splendid quahties, his eminent 
services, the vast space he fills in the eye of mankind ; and, 
more than all the rest, his fall from power, which, like death, 
canonizes and sanctifies a great character, will not suffer me 5 
to censure any part of his conduct. I am afraid to flatter 
him ; I am sure I am not disposed to blame him. Let those, 
who have betrayed him by their adulation, insult him with 
their malevolence. But what I do not presume to censure, 
I may have leave to lament. For a wise man, he seemed to 10 
me at that time to be governed too much by general maxims. 
I speak with the freedom of history, and I hope without 
offence. One or two of these maxims, flowing from an 
opinion not the most indulgent to our unhappy species, and 
surely a little too general, led him into measures that were 15 
greatly mischievous to himself; and for that reason, among 
others, fatal to his country ; measures, the effects of which, I 
am afraid, are for ever incurable. He made an administra- 
tion, so checkered and speckled ; he put together a piece of 
joinery, so crossly indented and whimsically dove-tailed ; a 20 
cabinet so variously inlaid ; such a piece of diversified Mo- 
saic ; such a tesselated pavement without cement ; here a 
bit of black stone, and there a bit of white ; patriots and 
courtiers, king's friends and republicans ; whigs and tories ; 
treacherous friends and open enemies ; that it was indeed a 25 
very curious show ; but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure 
to stand on. The cofleagues whom he had assorted at the 
same boards, stared at each other, and were obliged to ask, 
" Sir, your name ? — Sir, you have the advantage of me — 
Mr. Such-a-one — I beg a thousand pardons — " I venture 30 
to say, it did so happen, that persons had a single office 



56 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 

divided between them, who had never spoke to each other 
in their lives, until they found themselves, they knew not 
how, pigging together, heads and points, in the same truckle- 
bed.i 

5 Sir, in consequence of this arrangement, having put so 
much the larger part of his enemies and opposers into power, 
the confusion was such, that his own principles could not 
possibly have any effect or influence in the conduct of affairs. 
If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or if any other cause 

10 withdrew him from public cares, principles directly the con- 
trary were sure to predominate. When he had executed his 
plan, he had not an inch of ground to stand upon. When 
he had accomplished his scheme of administration, he was 
no longer a minister. 

15 When his face was hid but for a moment, his whole system 
was on a wide sea, without chart or compass. The gentle- 
men, his particular friends, who, with the names of various 
departments of ministry, were admitted to seem as if they 
acted a part under him, with a modesty that becomes all 

20 men, and with a confidence in him, which was justified even 
in its extravagance by his superior abilities, had never, in 
any instance, presumed upon any opinion of their own. 
Deprived of his guiding influence, they were whirled about, 
the sport of every gust, and easily driven into any port ; and 

25 as those who joined with them in manning the vessel were 
the most directly opposite to his opinions, measures, and 
character, and far the most artful and most powerful of the 
set, they easily prevailed, so as to seize upon the vacant, 
unoccupied, and derelict minds of his friends ; and instantly 

30 they turned the vessel wholly out of the course of his policy. 
As if it were to insult as well as to betray him, even long 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 57 

before the close of the first session of his administration, 
when everything was pubhcly transacted, and with great 
parade, in his name, they made an act, declaring it highly 
just and expedient to raise a revenue in America. For even 
then, Sir, even before this splendid orb was entirely set, and 5 
while the western horizon was in a blaze with his descending 
glory, on the opposite quarter of the heavens arose another 
luminary, and, for his hour, became lord of the ascendant. 

This light too is passed and set for ever. You understand, 
to be sure, that I speak of Charles Townshend, officially the 10 
re-producer of this fatal scheme ; whom I cannot even now 
remember without some degree of sensibility. In truth. Sir, 
he was the delight and ornament of this House, and the 
charm of every private society which he honoured with 
his presence. Perhaps there never arose in this country, 15 
nor in any country, a man of a more pointed and finished 
wit ; and (where his passions were not concerned) of a more 
refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment. If he had not 
so great a stock, as some have had who flourished formerly, 
of knowledge long treasured up, he knew better, by far, than 20 
any man I ever was acquainted with, how to bring together, 
within a short time, all that was necessary to establish, to 
illustrate, and to decorate that side of thie question he sup- 
ported. He stated his matter skilfully and powerfully. He 
particularly excelled in a most luminous explanation and 25 
display of his subject. His style of argument was neither 
trite and vulgar, nor subtle and abstruse. He hit the House 
just between wind and water. — And not being troubled with 
too anxious a zeal for any matter in question, he was never 
more tedious, or more earnest, than the pre-conceived opin- 30 
ions and present temper of his hearers required ; to whom 



58 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

he was always in perfect unison. He conformed exactly to 
the temper of the House ; and he seemed to guide, because 
he was also sure to follow it. 

I beg pardon, Sir, if, when I speak of this and of other 

5 great men, I appear to digress in saying something of their 
characters. In this eventful history of the revolutions of 
America, the characters of such men are of much importance. 
Great men are the guide-posts and land-marks in the state. 
The credit of such men at court, or in the nation, is the sole 

10 cause of all the public measures. It would be an invidious 
thing (most foreign, I trust, to what you think my disposition) 
to remark the errors into which the authority of great names 
has brought the nation, without doing justice, at the same 
time, to the great qualities whence that authority arose. The 

15 subject is instructive to those who wish to form themselves 
on whatever of excellence has gone before them. There are 
many young members in the House (such of late has been 
the rapid succession of public men) who never saw that 
prodigy, Charles Townshend ; nor of course know what a 

20 ferment he was able to excite in everything by the violent 
ebullition of his mixed virtues and failings. For failings he 
had undoubtedly — many of us remember them ; we are this 
day considering the effect of them. But he had no failings 
which were not owing to a noble cause ; to an ardent, gen- 

25 erous, perhaps an immoderate, passion for fame ; a passion 
which is the instinct of all great souls. He worshipped that 
goddess wheresoever she appeared ; but he paid his particu- 
lar devotions to her in her favourite habitation, in her chosen 
temple, the House of Commons. Besides the characters of 

30 the individuals that compose our body, it is impossible, Mr. 
Speaker, not to observe that this House has a collective char- 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 59 

acter of its own. That character too, however imperfect, is 
not unamiable. Like all great public collections of men, you 
possess a marked love of virtue and an abhorrence of vice. 
But among vices, there is none which the House abhors in 
the same degree with obstinacy. Obstinacy, Sir, is certainly 5 
a great vice ; and in the changeful state of political affairs 
it is frequently the cause of great mischief. It happens, 
however, very unfortunately, that almost the whole line of 
the great and mascuHne virtues, constancy, gravity, mag- 
nanimity, fortitude, fidelity, and firmness, are closely aUied 10 
to this disagreeable quality, of which you have so just an 
abhorrence ; and, in their excess, all these virtues very easily 
fall into it. He, who paid such a punctilious attention to all 
your feelings, certainly took care not to shock them by that 
vice which is the most disgustful to you. 15 

That fear of displeasing those who ought most to be 
pleased, betrayed him sometimes into the other extreme. 
He had voted, and, in the year 1765, had been an advocate, 
for the stamp act. Things and the disposition of men's 
minds were changed. In short, the stamp act began to be 20 
no favourite in this House. He therefore attended at the 
private meeting, in which the resolutions moved by a right 
honourable gentleman were settled ; resolutions leading to 
the repeal. The next day he voted for that repeal ; and he 
would have spoken for it too, if an illness, (not, as was then 25 
given out, a political,) but to my knowledge, a very real ill- 
ness, had not prevented it. 

The very next session, as the fashion of this world passeth 
away, the repeal began to be in as bad an odour in this 
House as the stamp act had been in the session before. To 30 
conform to the temper which began to prevail, and to pre- 



60 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

vail mostly amongst those most in power, he declared, very 
early in the winter, that a revenue must be had out of 
America. Instantly he was tied down to his engagements 
by some, who had no objection to such experiments, when 

5 made at the cost of persons for whom they had no particular 
regard. The whole body of courtiers drove him onward. 
They always talked as if the king stood in a sort of humili- 
ated state, until something of the kind should be done. 
Here, this extraordinary man, then chancellor of the ex- 

10 chequer, found himself in great straits. To please univer- 
sally was the object of his life;; but to tax and to please, no 
more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men. How- 
ever, he attempted it. To render the tax palatable to the 
partisans of American revenue, he had a preamble stating 

15 the necessity of such a revenue. To close with the American 
distinction, this revenue was external or port duty; but 
again, to soften it to the other party, it was a duty of supply. 
To gratify the colonists, it was laid on British manufactures ; 
to satisfy the merchants of Britain, the duty was trivial, and 

20 (except that on tea, which touched only the devoted East 
India Company) on pone of the grand objects of commerce. 
To counterwork the American contraband, the duty on tea 
was reduced from a shilling to three-pence. But to secure 
the favour of those who would tax America, the scene of col- 

25 lection was changed, and, with the rest, it was levied in the 
colonies. What need I say more? This fine-spun scheme 
had the usual $ate of all exquisite policy. But the original 
plan of the duties, and the mode of executing that plan, 
both arose singly and solely from a love of our applause. 

30 He was truly the child of the House. He never thought, 
did, or said anything, but with a view to you. He every 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 61 

day adapted himself to your disposition ; and adjusted him- 
self before it as at a looking-glass.^ 

He had observed (indeed it could not escape him) that 
several persons, infinitely his inferiors in all respects, had 
formerly rendered themselves considerable in this House by 5 
one method alone. They were a race of men (I hope in 
God the species is extinct) who, when they rose in their 
place, no man living could divine, from any known adher- 
ence to parties, to opinions, or to principles, from any order 
or system in their politics, or from any sequel or connexion 10 
in their ideas, what part they were going to take in any 
debate. It is astonishing how much this uncertainty, espe- 
cially at critical times, called the attention of all parties on 
such men. All eyes were fixed on them, all ears open to 
hear them ; each party gaped, and looked alternately for 15 
their vote, almost to the end of their speeches. While the 
House hung in this uncertainty, now the hear hims rose 
from his side — now they rebellowed from the other ; and 
that party, to whom they fell at length from their tremulous 
and dancing balance, always received them in a tempest of 20 
applause. The fortune of such men was a temptation too 
great to be resisted by one, to whom a single whiff of incense 
withheld gave much greater pain, than he received delight 
in the clouds of it, which daily rose about him from the 
prodigal superstition of innumerable admirers. He was a 25 
candidate for contradictory honours ; and his great aim was 
to make those agree in admiration of him who never agreed 
in anything else. 

Hence arose this unfortunate act, the subject of this day's 
debate ; from a disposition which, after making an American 30 
revenue to please one, repealed it to please others, and again 



62 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

revived it in hopes of pleasing a third, and of catching some- 
thing in the ideas of all. 

This revenue act of 1767 formed the fourth period of 
American pohcy. How we have fared since then — what 

5 woeful variety of schemes have been adopted ; what enforc- 
ing, and what repealing ; what bullying, and what submitting ; 
what doing, and undoing ; what straining, and what relaxing ; 
what assemblies dissolved for not obeying, and called again 
without obedience ; what troops sent out to quell resistance, 

10 and on meeting that resistance, recalled ; what shiftings, and 
changes, and jumblings of all kinds of men at home, which 
left no possibihty of order, consistency, vigour, or even so 
much as a decent unity of colour in any one public measure. 
— It is a tedious, irksome task. My duty may call me to 

15 open it out some other time ; on a former occasion^ I tried 

your temper on a part of it ; for the present I shall forbear. 

After all these changes and agitations, your immediate 

situation upon the question on your paper is at length brought 

to this. You have an act of parhament, stating, that '' it is 

20 expedient to raise a revenue in America." By a partial repeal 
you annihilated the greatest part of that revenue, which this 
preamble declares to be so expedient. You have substituted 
no other in the place of it. A secretary of state has dis- 
claimed, in the king's name, all thoughts of such a substitu- 

25 tion in future. The principle of this disclaimer goes to what 
has been left, as well as what has been repealed. The tax 
which lingers after its companions (under a preamble declar- 
ing an American revenue expedient, and for the sole purpose 
of supporting the theory of that preamble) militates with the 

30 assurance authentically conveyed to the colonies ; and is an 
exhaustless source of jealousy and animosity. On this state, 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 63 

which I take to be a fair one ; not being able to discern any 
grounds of honour, advantage, peace, or power, for adhering, 
either to the act or to the preamble, I shall vote for the 
question which leads to the repeal of both. 

If you do not fall in with this motion, then secure some- 5 
thing to fight for, consistent in theory and valuable in practice. 
If you must employ your strength, employ it to uphold you in 
some honourable right, or some profitable wrong. If you are 
apprehensive that the concession recommended to you, 
though proper, should be a means of drawing on you further 10 
but unreasonable claims, — why then employ your force in 
supporting that reasonable concession against those unreason- 
able demands. You will employ it with more grace ; with 
better effect ; and with great probable concurrence of all 
the quiet and rational people in the provinces ; who are now 15 
united with, and hurried away by, the violent ; having indeed 
different dispositions, but a common interest. If you appre- 
hend that on a concession you shall be pushed by metaphys- 
ical process to the extreme lines, and argued out of your 
whole authority, my advice is this ; when you have recovered 20 
your old, your strong, your tenable position, then face about 
— stop short — do nothing more — reason not at all — oppose 
the ancient policy and practice of the empire, as a rampart 
against the speculations of innovators on both sides of the 
question ; and you will stand on great, manly, and sure 25 
ground. On this solid basis fix your machines, and they 
will draw worlds towards you. 

Your ministers, in their own and his Majesty's name, have 
already adopted the American distinction of internal and 
external duties. It is a distinction, whatever merit it may 30 
have, that was originally moved by the Americans them- 



64 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

selves ; and I think they will acquiesce in it, if they are not 
pushed with too much logic and too httle sense, in all the 
consequences. That is, if external taxation be understood, 
as they and you understand it, when you please, to be not a 

5 distinction of geography, but of policy ; that it is a power \ 

for regulating trade, and not for supporting establishments. , 

The distinction, which is as nothing with regard to right, is » 

of most weighty consideration in practice. Recover your 
old ground, and your old tranquilhty — try it — I am per- \ 

lo suaded the Americans will compromise with you. When ^ | 

confidence is once restored, the odious and suspicious stem- 
mum jus will perish of course. The spirit of practicability, 
of moderation, and mutual convenience, will never call in 
geometrical exactness as the arbitrator of amicable setde- 

15 ment. Consult and follow your experience. Let not the 
long story, with which I have exercised your patience, prove 
fruidess to your interests. 

For my part, I should choose (if I could have my wish) ^ 

that the proposition of the honourable gentleman ^ for the 

20 repeal could go to America without the attendance of the 
penal bills. Alone I could almost answer for its success. I 
cannot be certain of its reception in the bad company it may 
keep. In such heterogeneous assortments, the most inno- " 
cent person wall lose the effect of his innocency. Though 

25 you should send out this angel of peace, yet you are sending 
out a destroying angel too : and what would be the effect of 
the conflict of these two adverse spirits, or which would 
predominate in the end, is what I dare not say : whether 
the lenient measures would cause American passion to sub- 

30 side, or the severe would increase its fury — all this is in the 
hand of Providence. Yet now, even now, I should confide 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 65 

in the prevailing virtue and efficacious operation of lenity, 
though vi^orking in darkness, and in chaos, in the midst of 
all this unnatural and turbid combination : I should hope it 
might produce order and beauty in the end. 

Let us, Sir, embrace some system or other before we end 5 
this session. Do you mean to tax America, and to draw a 
productive revenue from thence? If you do, speak out; 
name, fix, ascertain this revenue ; settle its quantity ; define 
its objects ; provide for its collection ; and then fight when 
you have something to fight for. If you murder, rob ; if 10 
you kill, take possession : and do not appear in the charac- 
ter of madmen, as well as assassins, violent, vindictive, 
bloody, and tyrannical, without an object. But may better 
counsels guide you ! 

Again, and again, revert to your own principles — seek 15 
peace and ensue it — leave America, if she has taxable mat- 
ter in her, to tax herself. I am not here going into the dis- j 
tinctions of rights, not attempting to mark their boundaries. ' 
I do not enter into these metaphysical distinctions ; I hate 
the very sound of them. Leave the Americans as they 20 
anciently stood, and these distinctions, born of our unhappy 
contest, will die along with it. They and we, and their and 
our ancestors, have been happy under that system. Let the 
memory of all actions, in contradiction to that good old » 
mode, on both sides, be extinguished for ever. Be content 25 
to bind America by laws of trade ; you have always done it. . 
Let this be your reason for binding their trade. Do not 
burthen them by taxes ; you were not used to do so from 
the beginning. Let this be your reason for not taxing. 
These are the arguments of states and kingdoms. Leave 30 
the rest to the schools; for there only they may be dis- 



66 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 

cussed with safety. But if, intemperately, unwisely, fatally, 
you sophisticate and poison the very source of government, 
by urging subtle deductions, and consequences odious to 
those you govern, from the unlimited and illimitable nature 

5 of supreme sovereignty, you will teach them by these means 
to call that sovereignty itself in question. When you drive 
him hard, the boar will surely turn upon the hunters. If 
that sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, 
which will they take ? They will cast your sovereignty in 

lo your face. Nobody will be argued into slavery. Sir, let the 
gentlemen on the other side call forth all their ability ; let 
the best of them get up, and tell me, what one character of 
liberty the Americans have, and what one brand of slavery 
they are free from, if they are bound in their property and 

15 industry, by all the restraints you can imagine on commerce, 
and at the same time are made pack-horses of every tax you 
choose to impose, without the least share in granting them. 
When they bear the burthens of unhmited monopoly, will 
you bring them to bear the burthens of unlimited revenue 

20 too? The Englishman in America will feel that this is 
slavery — that it is legal slavery, will be no compensation, 
either to his feelings or his understanding. 

A noble lord,^ who spoke some time ago, is full of the fire 
of ingenious youth ; and when he has modelled the ideas of 

25 a lively imagination by further experience, he will be an 
ornament to his country in either House. He has said, that 
the Americans are our children, and how can they revolt 
against their parent? He says, that if they are not free in 
their present state, England is not free ; because Manchester, 

30 and other considerable places, are not represented. So then, 
because some towns in England are not represented, America 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 67 

is to have no representative at all. They are " our children ; " 
but when children ask for bread we are not to give a stone. 
Is it because the natural resistance of things, and the various 
mutations of time, hinders our government, or any scheme of 
government, from being any more than a sort of approxima- 5 
tion to the right, is it therefore that the colonies are to recede 
from it infinitely? When this child of ours wishes to assimi- 
late to its parent, and to reflect with a true filial resemblance 
the beauteous countenance of British liberty ; are we to turn 
to them the shameful parts of our constitution? are we to 10 
give them our weakness for their strength ? our opprobrium 
for their glory ? and the slough of slavery, which we are not 
able to work off, to serve them for their freedom ? 

If this be the case, ask yourselves this question. Will they 
be content in such a state of slavery? If not, look to the 15 
consequences. Reflect how you are to govern a people, who 
think they ought to be free, and think they are not. Your 
scheme yields no revenue ; it yields nothing but discontent, 
disorder, disobedience ; and such is the state of America, 
that after wading up to your eyes in blood, you could only 20 
end just where you begun ; that is, to tax where no revenue 
is to be found, to — my voice fails me ; my inclination indeed 
carries me no farther — all is confusion beyond it. 

W^ell, Sir, I have recovered a little, and before I sit down 
I must say something to another point with which gentlemen 25 
urge us. What is to become of the declaratory act asserting 
the entireness of British legislative authority, if we abandon 
the practice of taxation ? 

For my part I look upon the rights stated in that act, 
exactly in the manner in which I viewed them on its very 30 
first proposition, and which I have often taken the liberty, 



68 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

with great humility, to lay before you. I look, I say, on the 
imperial rights of Great Britain, and the privileges which the 
colonists ought to enjoy under these rights, to be just the 
most reconcilable things in the world. The parhament of 

5 Great Britain sits at the head of her extensive empire in two 

capacities : one as the local legislature of this island, provid- I 

ing for all things at home, immediately, and by no other in- 
strument than the executive power. — The other, and I think ) 
her nobler capacity, is what I call her imperial character ; in > 

10 which, as from the throne of heaven, she superintends all the 
several inferior legislatures, and guides and controls them all, 
without annihilating any. As all these provincial legislatures 
are only co-ordinate to each other, they ought all to be 
subordinate to her ; else they can neither preserve mutual 

15 peace, nor hope for mutual justice, nor effectually afford 
mutual assistance. It is necessary to coerce the negligent, 
to restrain the violent, and to aid the weak and deficient, by 
the overruling plenitude of her power. She is never to in- 
trude into the place of the others, whilst they are equal to 

20 the common ends of their institution. But in order to enable 
parhament to answer all these ends of provident and benefi- 
cent superintendence, her powers must be boundless. The 
gentlemen who think the powers of parliament limited, may 
please themselves to talk of requisitions. But suppose the 

25 requisitions are not obeyed ? What ! Shall there be no re- 
served power in the empire, to supply a deficiency which may 
weaken, divide, and dissipate the whole ? We are engaged 
in war — the secretary of state calls upon the colonies to 
contribute — some would do it, I think most would cheerfully 

30 furnish whatever is demanded — one or two, suppose, hang 
back, and, easing themselves, let the stress of the draft lie 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 69 

on the others — surely it is proper, that some authority might 
legally say — "Tax yourselves for the common supply, or 
parliament will do it for you." This backwardness was, as 
I am told, actually the case of Pennsylvania for some short 
time towards the beginning of the last war, owing to some 5 
internal dissensions in the colony. But whether the fact 
were so, or otherwise, the case is equally to be provided for 
by a competent sovereign power. But then this ought to be 
no ordinary power ; nor ever used in the first instance. This 
is what I meant, when I have said at various times, that I 10 
consider the power of taxing in parliament as an instrument 
of empire, and not as a means of supply. 

Such, Sir, is my idea of the constitution of the British em- 
pire, as distinguished from the constitution of Britain ; and 
on these grounds I think subordination and liberty may be 15 
sufiftciently reconciled through the whole ; whether to serve 
a refining speculatist, or a factious demagogue, I know not ; 
but enough surely for the ease and happiness of man. 

Sir, whilst we held this happy course, we drew more from 
the colonies than all the impotent violence of despotism ever 20 
could extort from them. We did this abundantly in the last 
war. It has never been once denied — and what reason have 
we to imagine that the colonies would not have proceeded in 
supplying government as liberally, if you had not stepped in 
and hindered them from contributing, by interrupting the 25 
channel in which their liberality flowed with so strong a 
course ; by attempting to take, instead of being satisfied to 
receive ? Sir William Temple says, that Holland has loaded 
itself with ten times the impositions which it revolted from 
Spain rather than submit to. He says true. Tyranny is a 30 
poor provider. It knows neither how to accumulate, nor 
how to extract. 



70 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 

I charge therefore to this new and unfortunate system the 
loss not only of peace, of union, and of commerce, but even 
of revenue, which its friends are contending for. — It is mor- 
ally certain, that we have lost at least a million of free grants 

5 since the peace. I think we have lost a great deal more ; 
and that those, who look for a revenue from the provinces, 
never could have pursued, even in that hght, a course more 
directly repugnant to their purposes. 

Now, Sir, I trust I have shown, first on that narrow ground 

10 which the honourable gentleman measured, that you are 
likely to lose nothing by complying with the motion, except 
what you have lost already. I have shown afterwards, that 
in time of peace you flourished in commerce, and, when war 
required it, had sufficient aid from the colonies, while you 

15 pursued your ancient policy ; that you threw everything 
into confusion when you made the stamp act ; and that you 
restored everything to peace and order when you repealed 
it. I have shown that the revival of the system of taxation 
has produced the very worst effects; and that the partial 

20 repeal has produced, not partial good, but universal evil. 
Let these considerations, founded on facts, not one of which 
can be denied, bring us back to our reason by the road of 
our experience. 

I cannot, as I have said, answer for mixed measures : but 

25 surely this mixture of lenity would give the whole a better 
chance of success. When you once regain confidence, the 
way will be clear before you. Then you may enforce the 
act of navigation when it ought to be enforced. You will 
yourselves open it where it ought still further to be opened. 

30 Proceed in what you do, whatever you do, from policy, and 
not from rancour. Let us act like men, let us act like states- 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 71 

men. Let us hold some sort of consistent conduct. — It is 
agreed that a revenue is not to be had in America. If we 
lose the profit, let us get rid of the odium. 

On this business of America, I confess I am serious, even 
to sadness. I have had but one opinion concerning it since 5 
I sat, and before I sat, in parHament. The noble lord ^ will, 
as usual, probably attribute the part taken by me and my 
friends in this business, to a desire of getting his places. Let 
him enjoy this happy and original idea. If I deprived him of 
it, I should take away most of his wit, and all his argument. 10 
But I had rather bear the brunt of all his wit, and indeed 
blows much heavier, than stand answerable to God for em- 
bracing a system that tends to the destruction of some of 
the very best and fairest of his works. But I know the map 
of England, as well as the noble lord, or as any other person, 15 
and I know that the way I take is not the road to prefer- 
ment. My excellent and honourable friend under me on the 
floor ^ has trod that road with great toil for upwards of 
twenty years together. He is not yet arrived at the noble 
lord's destination. However, the tracks of my worthy friend 20 
are those I have ever wished to follow ; because I know they 
lead to honour. Long may we tread the same road together ; 
whoever may accompany us, or whoever may laugh at us on 
our journey ! I honestly and solenmly declare, I have in all 
seasons adhered to. the system of 1766, for no other reason, 25 
than that I think it laid deep in your truest interest — and 
that, by limiting the exercise, it fixes, on the firmest found- 
ations, a real, consistent, well-grounded authority in parlia- 
ment. Until you come back to that system, there will be 
no peace for England. 30 



SPEECH OF EDMUND BURKE, Esq., 

ON 

HIS ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL. 

October 13, 1774. 



Gentlemen : I am come hither to solicit in person, that 
favour which my friends have hitherto endeavoured to pro- 
cure for me, by the most obhging, and to me the most 
honourable, exertions. 

5 I have so high an opinion of the great trust which you 
have to confer on this occasion ; and, by long experience, so 
just a diffidence in my abilities to fill it in a manner adequate 
even to my own ideas, that I should never have ventured 
of myself to intrude into that awful situation. But since I 

10 am called upon by the desire of several respectable fellow- 
subjects, as I have done at other times, I give up my fears 
to their wishes. Whatever my other deficiences may be, I 
do not know what it is to be wanting to my friends. 

I am not fond of attempting to raise public expectation 

15 by great promises. At this time, there is much cause to 
consider, and very little to presume. We seem to be ap- 
proaching to a great crisis in our affairs, which calls for the 
whole wisdom of the wisest among us, without being able to 
assure ourselves, that any wisdom can preser\^e us from 

20 many and great inconveniences. You know I speak of our 
unhappy contest with America. I confess, it is a matter on 
72 



SPEECH ON HIS ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL. 73 

which I look down as from a precipice. It is difficult in 
itself, and it is rendered more intricate by a great variety of 
plans of conduct. I do not mean to enter into them. I 
will not suspect a want of good intention in framing them. 
But however pure the intentions of their authors may have 5 
been, we all know that the event has been unfortunate. 
The means of recovering our affairs are not obvious. So 
many great questions of commerce, of finance, of consti- 
tution, and of policy, are involved in this American deliber- 
ation, that I dare engage for nothing, but that I shall 10 
give it, without any predilection to former opinions, or any 
sinister bias whatsoever, the most honest and impartial 
consideration of which I am capable. The public has a 
full right to it; and this great city, a main pillar in the 
commercial interest of Great Britain, must totter on its base 15 
by the slightest mistake with regard to our American 
measures. 

Thus much, however, I think it not amiss to lay before 
you ; That I am not, I hope, apt to take up or lay down my 
opinions hghtly. I have held, and ever shall maintain, to 20 
the best of my power, unimpaired and undiminished, the 
just, wise, and necessary constitutional superiority of Great 
Britain. This is necessary for America as well as for us. I 
never mean to depart from it. Whatever may be lost by it, 
I avow it. The forfeiture even of your favour, if by such a 25 
declaration I could forfeit it, though the first object of my 
ambition, never will make me disguise my sentiments on 
this subject. 

But, — I have ever had a clear opinion, and have ever 
held a constant correspondent conduct, that this superiority ^o 
is consistent with all the liberties a sober and spirited Amer- 



74 SPEECH ON HIS ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL. 

ican ought to desire. I never mean to put any colonist, or 
any human creature, in a situation not becoming a free- 
man. To reconcile British superiority with American liberty 
shall be my great object, as far as my httle faculties extend. 

5 I am far from thinking that both, even yet, may not be 
preserved. 

When I first devoted myself to the pubhc services I con- 
sidered how I should render myself fit for it ; and this I did 
by endeavouring to discover what it was that gave this coun- 

10 try the rank it holds in the world. I found that our pros- 
perity and dignity arose principally, if not solely, from two 
sources ; our constitution, and commerce. Both these I 
have spared no study to understand, and no endeavour to 
support. 

15 The distinguishing part of our constitution is its liberty. 
To preserve that Hberty inviolate, seems the particular duty 
and proper trust of a member of the House of Commons. 
But the liberty, the only liberty I mean, is a liberty con- 
nected with order ; that not only exists along with order and 

20 virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them. It in- 
heres in good and steady government, as in its substance 
and vital principle. 

The other source of our power is commerce, of which you 
are so large a part, and which cannot exist, no more than 

25 your liberty, without a connexion with many virtues. It has 
ever been a ver^ particular and a very favourite object of my 
study, in its principles, and in its details. I think many 
here are acquainted with the truth of what I say. This I 
know, that I have ever had my house open, and my poor 

30 services ready, for traders and manufacturers of every de- 
nomination. My favourite ambition is to have those services 



SPEECH ON HIS ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL. 75 

acknowledged. I now appear before you to make trial, 
whether my earnest endeavours have been so wholly oppressed 
by the weakness of my abiHties, as to be rendered insignifi- 
cant in the eyes of a great trading city; or whether you 
choose to give a weight to humble abilities, for the sake of 5 
the honest exertions with which they are accompanied. 
This is my trial to-day. My industry is not on trial. Of 
my industry I am sure, as far as my constitution of mind 
and body admitted. 

When I was invited by many respectable merchants, free- 10 
holders, and freemen of this city, to offer them my services, 
I had just received the honour of an election at another place, 
at a very great distance from this. I immediately opened 
the matter to those of my worthy constituents who were 
with me, and they unanimously advised me not to decline it. 15 
They told me, that they had elected me with a view to the 
public service : and as great questions relative to our com- 
merce and colonies were imminent, that in such matters I 
might derive authority and support from the representation 
of this great commercial city ; they desired me therefore to 20 
set off without delay, very well persuaded that I never could 
forget my obligations to them, or to my friends, for the 
choice they have made of me. From that time to this instant 
I have not slept ; and if I should have the honour of being 
freely chosen by you, I hope I shall be as far from slumber- 25 
ing or sleeping when your service requires me to be awake, 
as I have been in coming to offer myself a candidate for your 
favour. 



SPEECH OF EDMUND BURKE, Esq., 



ELECTORS OF BRISTOL 



CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 

Nov. 3, 1774. 



Gentlemen : I cannot avoid sympathizing strongly with 
the feeHngs of the gentleman who has received the same 
honour that you have conferred on me. If he, who was bred 
and passed his whole life amongst you ; if he, who through 
the easy gradations of acquaintance, friendship, and esteem, 
has obtained the honour, which seems of itself, naturally and 
almost insensibly, to meet with those, who, by the even tenour 
of pleasing manners and social virtues, slide into the love 
and confidence of their fellow-citizens; — if he cannot speak 
but with great emotion on this subject, surrounded as he is 
on all sides with his old friends ; you will have the goodness 
to excuse me, if my real, unaffected embarrassment prevents 
me from expressing my gratitude to you as I ought. 

I was brought hither under the disadvantage of being un- 
known, even by sight, to any of you. No previous canvass 
was made for me. I was put in nomination after the poll 
was opened. I did not appear until it was far advanced. 
If, under all these accumulated disadvantages, your good 
76 



SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 77 

opinion has carried me to this happy point of success ; you 
will pardon me, if I can only say to you collectively, as 
I said to you individually, simply, and plainly, I thank 
you — I am obliged to you — I am not insensible of your 
kindness. 5 

This is all that I am able to say for the inestimable favour 
you have conferred upon me. But I cannot be satisfied, 
without saying a little more in defence of the right you have 
to confer such a favour. The person that appeared here as 
counsel for the candidate, who so long and so earnestly so- lo 
licited your votes, thinks proper to deny, that a very great 
part of you have any votes to give. He fixes a standard 
period of time in his own imagination, not what the law 
defines, but merely what the convenience of his client sug- 
gests, by which he would cut off, at one stroke, all those 15 
freedoms which are the dearest privileges of your corporation ; 
which the common law authorizes; which your magistrates 
are compelled to grant ; which come duly authenticated into 
this court; and are saved in the clearest words, and with the 
most religious care and tenderness, in that very act of parlia- 20 
ment, which was made to regulate the elections by freemen, 
and to prevent all possible abuses in making them. 

I do not intend to argue the matter here. My learned 
counsel has supported your cause with his usual ability ; the 
worthy sheriffs have acted with their usual equity, and I have 25 
no doubt, that the same equity, which dictates the return, 
will guide the final determination. I had the honour, in 
conjunction with many far wiser men, to contribute a very 
small assistance, but, however, some assistance, to the form- 
ing the judicature which is to try such questions. It would 30 
be unnatural in me to doubt the justice of that court, in the 



78 SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 

trial of my own cause, to which I have been so active to give 
jurisdiction over every other. 

I assure the worthy freemen, and this corporation, that, if 
the gentleman perseveres in the intentions which his present 

5 warmth dictates to him, I will attend their cause with dili- 
gence, and I hope with effect. For, if I know anything of 
myself, it is not my own interest in it, but my full convic- 
tion, that induces me to tell you — / think thej-e is not a 
shadow of doubt in the case. 

lo I do not imagine that you find me rash in declaring my- 
self, or very forward in troubling you. From the beginning 
to the end of the election, I have kept silence in all matters 
of discussion. I have never asked a question of a voter on 
the other side, or supported a doubtful vote on my own. I 

15 respected the abilities of my managers ; I relied on the can- 
dour of the court. I think the worthy sheriffs will bear me 
witness, that I have never once made an attempt to impose 
upon their reason, to surprise their justice, or to ruffle their 
temper. I stood on the hustings (except when I gave my 

20 thanks to those who favoured me with their votes) less hke 
a candidate, than an unconcerned spectator of a public pro- 
ceeding. But here the face of things is altered. Here is an 
attempt for a general massacre of suffrages ; an attempt, by 
a promiscuous carnage oi friends and /<?<fj-, to exterminate 

25 above two thousand votes, including seven hundred polled for 
the gentleman himself, who no7v complains, and who would 
destroy the friends whom he has obtained, only because he 
cannot obtain as many of them as he wishes. 

How he will be permitted, in another place, to stultify and 

30 disable himself, and to plead against his own acts, is another 
question. The law will decide it. I shall only speak of it 



■ SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 79 

as it concerns the propriety of public conduct in this city. I 
do not pretend to lay down rules of decorum for other gentle- 
men. They are best judges of the mode of proceeding that 
will recommend them to the favour of their fellow-citizens. 
But I confess I should look rather awkward, if I had been 5 
the ve7'y first to produce the new copies of freedom^ if I had 
persisted in producing them to the last ; if I had ransacked, 
with the most unremitting industry and the most penetrating 
research, the remotest corners of the kingdom to discover 
them ; if I were then, all at once, to turn short, and declare, 10 
that I had been sporting all this while with the right of elec- 
tion ; and that I had been drawing out a poll, upon no sort 
of rational grounds, which disturbed the peace of my fellow- 
citizens for a month together — I really, for my part, should 
appear awkward under such circumstances. 15 

It would be still more awkward in me, if I were gravely to 
look the sheriffs in the face, and to tell them, they were not 
to determine my cause on my own principles ; not to make 
the return upon those votes upon which I had rested my 
election. Such would be my appearance to the court and 20 
magistrates. 

But how should I appear to the voters themselves ? If I 
had gone round to the citizens entitled to freedom, and 
squeezed them by the hand — "Sir, I humbly beg your vote 
— I shall be eternally thankful — may I hope for the honour 25 
of your support? — Well ! — come — we shall see you at the 
council-house " — If I were then to deliver them to my man- 
I agers, pack them into tallies, vote them off in court, and 
when I heard from the bar — " Such a one only ! and such a 
one for ever ! — he's my man ! " — ''Thank you, good Sir — 30 
Hah ! my worthy friend ! thank you kindly — that's an 



80 SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 

honest fellow — how is your good family?" — Whilst these 
words were hardly out of my mouth, if I should have 
wheeled round at once, and told them — "Get you gone, 
you pack of worthless fellows ! you have no votes — you are 

5 usurpers ! you are intruders on the rights of real freemen ! 
I will have nothing to do with you ! you ought never to 
have been produced at this election, and the sheriffs ought 
not to have admitted you to poll." 

Gentlemen, I should make a strange figure if my conduct 

lo had been of this sort. I am not so old an acquaintance of 
yours as the worthy gentleman. Indeed I could not have 
ventured on such kind of freedoms with you. But I am 
bound, and I will endeavour, to have justice done to the 
rights of freemen ; even though I should, at the same time, 

15 be obliged to vindicate the former^ part of my antagonist's 
conduct against his own present inclinations. 

I owe myself, in all things, to all the freemen of this city. 
My particular friends have a demand on me that I should 
not deceive their expectations. Never was cause or man 

20 supported with more constancy, more activity, more spirit. 
I have been supported with a- zeal indeed and heartiness in 
my friends, which (if their object had been at all propor- 
tioned to their endeavours) could never be sufficiently com- 
mended. They supported me upon the most liberal princi- 

25 pies. They wished that the members for Bristol should be 
chosen for the city, and for their country at large, and not 
for themselves. 

So far they are not disappointed. If I possess nothing 
else, I am sure I possess the temper that is fit for your ser- 

30 vice. I know nothing of Bristol, but by the favours I have 
received, and the virtues I have seen exerted in it. 



SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 81 

I shall ever retain, what I now feel, the most perfect and 
grateful attachment to my friends — and I have no enmi- 
ties ; no resentment. I never can consider fidelity to en- 
gagements, and constancy in friendships, but with the 
highest approbation ; even when those noble qualities are 5 
employed against my own pretensions. The gentleman, who 
is not so fortunate as I have been in this contest, enjoys, in 
this respect, a consolation full of honour both to himself and 
to his friends. They have certainly left nothing undone for 
his service. 10 

As for the trifling petulance, which the rage of party stirs 
up in httle minds, though it should show itself even in this 
court, it has not made the slightest impression on me. The 
highest flight of such clamorous birds is winged in an infe- 
rior reign of the air. We hear them, and we look upon 15 
them, just as you, gentlemen, when you enjoy the serene air 
on your lofty rocks, look down upon the gulls that skim the 
mud of your river, when it is exhausted of its tide. 

I am sorry I cannot conclude without saying a word on a 
topic touched upon by ray worthy colleague. I wish that 20 
topic had been passed by at a time when I have so little 
leisure to discuss it. But since he has thought proper to 
throw it out, I owe you a clear explanation of my poor sen- 
timents on that subject. 

He tells you that "the topic of instructions has occasioned 25 
much altercation and uneasiness in this city " ; and he ex- 
presses himself (if I understand him rightly) in favour of 
the coercive authority of such instructions. 

Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and 
glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the 30 
closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communi- 



82 SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 

cation with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have 
great weight with him ; their opinion, high respect ; their 
business, unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice 
his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs ; and 

5 above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to 
his own. But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, 
his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, 
to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not 
derive from your pleasure ; no, nor from the law and the 

10 constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the 
abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representa- 
tive owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and 
he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your 
opinion. 

15 My worthy colleague says, his will ought to be subservient 
to yours. If that be all, the thing is innocent. If govern- 
ment were a matter of will upon any side, yours, without 
question, ought to be superior. But government and legis- 
lation are matters of reason and judgment, and not of 

20 inclination ; and what sort of reason is that, in which the 
determination precedes the discussion ; in which one set of 
men deliberate, and another decide ; and where those who 
form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles distant 
from those who hear the arguments? 

25 To deliver an opinion, is the right of all men ; that of 
constituents is a weighty and respectable opinion, which a 
representative ought always to rejoice to hear ; and which 
he ought always most seriously to consider. But authorita- 
tive instructions ; mandates issued, which the member is 

30 bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue 
for, though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judg- 



SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 83 

ment and conscience, — these are things utterly unknown to 
the laws of this land, and which arise from a fundamental 
mistake of the whole order and tenor of our constitution. 

Parharaent is not a congress of ambassadors from different 
and hostile interests ; which interests each must maintain, as 5 
an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates ; 
but parliament is a delibei-ative assembly of one nation, with 
one interest, that of the whole ; where, not local purposes, 
not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general good, 
resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose 10 
a member indeed ; but when you have chosen him, he is not 
member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament. If 
the local constituent should have an interest, or should form 
an hasty opinion, evidently opposite to the real good of the 
rest of the community, the member for that place ought to 15 
be as far, as any other, from any endeavour to give it effect. 
I beg pardon for saying so much on this subject. I have 
been unwillingly drawn into it ; but I shall ever use a respect- 
ful frankness of communication with you. Your faithful 
friend, your devoted servant, I shall be to the end of my 20 
life : a flatterer you do not wish for. On this point of 
instructions, however, I think it scarcely possible we ever 
can have any sort of difference. Perhaps I may give you 
too much, rather than too little, trouble. 

From the first hour I was encouraged to court your favour, 25 
to this happy day of obtaining it, I have never promised you 
anything but humble and persevering endeavours to do my 
duty. The weight of that duty, I confess, makes me tremble ; 
and whoever well considers what it is, of all things in the 
world, will fly from what has the least likeness to a positive 30 
and precipitate engagement. To be a good member of par- 



81 SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 

liament is, let me tell you, no easy task ; especially at this 
time, when there is so strong a disposition to run into the 
perilous extremes of servile compliance or wild popularity. 
To unite circumspection with vigour, is absolutely necessary ; 

5 but it is extremely difficult. We are now members for a 
rich commercial city; this city, however, is but a part of a 
rich commercial nation, the interests of which are various, 
multiform, and intricate. We are members for that great 
nation, which, however, is itself but part of a great empire, 

10 extended by our virtue and our fortune to the farthest limits 
of the east and of the west. All these wide-spread interests 
must be considered ; must be compared ; must be reconciled, 
if possible. We are members for 2, free country ; and surely 
we all know, that the machine of a free constitution is no 

15 simple thing ; but as intricate and as delicate as it is valu- 
able. We are members in a great and ancient monarchy ; 
and we must preserve religiously the true legal rights of the 
sovereign, which form the key-stone that binds together the 
noble and well-constructed arch of our empire and our con- 

20 stitution. A constitution made up of balanced powers must 
ever be a critical thing. As such I mean to touch that part 
of it which comes within my reach. I know my inability, 
and I wish for support from every quarter. In particular I 
shall aim at the friendship, and shall cultivate the best cor- 

25 respondence, of the worthy colleague you have given me. 

I trouble you no further than once more to thank you all ; 
you, gentlemen, for your favours ; the candidates, for their 
temperate and polite behaviour ; and the sheriffs, for a con- 
duct which may give a model for all who are in public 

30 stations. 



SPEECH OF EDMUND BURKE, Esq., 

ON 

MOVING HIS RESOLUTIONS 

FOR 

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES. 

March 22, 1775. 



I HOPE, Sir, that, notwithstanding the austerity of the 
Chair, your good-nature will incline you to some degree of 
indulgence towards human frailty. You will not think it 
unnatural, that those who have an object depending, which 
strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat 
inclined to superstition. As I came into the House full of 
anxiety about the event of my motion, I found, to my in- 
finite surprise, that the grand penal bill, by which he had 
passed sentence on the trade and sustenance of America, is 
to be returned to us from the other House.^ I do confess, 
I could not help looking on this event as a fortunate omen. 
I look upon it as a sort of providential favour ; by which we 
are put once more in possession of our deliberate capacity, 
upon a business so very questionable in its nature, so very 
uncertain in its issue. By the return of this bill, which 
seemed to have taken its flight for ever, we are at this very 
instant nearly as free to choose a plan for our American gov- 
ernment as we were on the first day of the session. If, Sir, 

8s 



86 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

we incline to the side of conciliation, we are not at all em- 
barrassed (unless we please to make ourselves so) by any 
incongruous mixture of coercion and restraint. We are 
therefore called upon, as it were by a superior warning 

5 voice, again to attend to America ; to attend to the whole 
of it together; and to review the subject with an unusual 
degree of care and calmness. 

Surely it is an awful subject ; or there is none so on this 
side of the grave. When I first had the honour of a seat in 

10 this House, the affairs of that continent pressed themselves 
upon us, as the most important and most delicate object' 
of parliamentary attention. INly little share in this great 
deliberation oppressed me. I found myself a partaker in a 
very high trust ; and having no sort of reason to rely on the 

15 strength of my natural abihties for the proper execution of 
that trust, I was obliged to take more than common pains to 
instruct myself in everything which relates to our colonies. 
I was not less under the necessity of forming some fixed idea§ 
concerning the general policy of the British empire. Some- 

20 thing of this sort seemed to be indispensable ; in order, 
amidst so vast a fluctuation of passions and opinions, to con- 
centre my thoughts ; to ballast my conduct ; to preserve me 
from being blown about by every wind of fashionable doc- 
trine. I really did not think it safe, or manly, to have fresh 

25 principles to seek upon every fresh mail which should arrive 
from America. 

At that period I had the fortune to find myself in perfect 
concurrence with a large majority in this House.^ Bowing 
under that high authority, and penetrated with the sharp- 

30 ness and strength of that early impression, I have continued 
ever since, without the least deviation, in my original senti- 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 87 

ments. Whether this be owing to an obstinate perseverance 
in error, or to a rehgious adherence to what appears to me 
truth and reason, it is in your equity to judge. 

Sir, parhament having an enlarged view of objects, made, 
during this interval, more frequent changes in their senti- 5 
ments and their conduct, than could be justified in a partic- 
ular person upon the contracted scale of private information. 
But though I do not hazard anything approaching to censure 
on the motives of former parliaments to all those alterations, 
one fact is undoubted, — that under them the state of Amer- 10 
ica has been kept in continual agitation. Everything ad- 
ministered as remedy to the public complaint, if it did not 
produce, was at least followed by, an heightening of the dis- 
temper ; until, by a variety of experiments, that important 
country has been brought into her present situation ; — a situ- 15 
ation which I will not miscall, which I dare not name ; which 
I scarcely know how to comprehend in the terms of any 
description. 

In this posture, Sir, things stood at the beginning of the 
session. About that time, a worthy member ^ of great parlia- 20 
mentary experience, who, in the year 1766, filled the chair of 
the American committee with much abihty, took me aside ; 
and, lamenting the present aspect of our politics, told me, 
things were come to such a pass, that our former methods 
of proceeding in the House would be no longer tolerated. 25 
That the public tribunal (never too indulgent to a long and 
unsuccessful opposition) would now scrutinize our conduct 
with unusual severity. That, the very vicissitudes and shift- 
ings of ministerial measures, instead of convicting their au- 
thors of inconstancy and want of system, would be taken as 30 
an occasion of charging us with a predetermined discontent, 



88 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

which nothing could satisfy ; whilst we accused every measure 
of vigour as cruel, and every proposal of lenity as weak and 
irresolute. The public, he said, would not have patience to 
see us play the game out with our adversaries : we must pro- 

5 duce our hand. It would be expected, that those who for 
many years had been active in such affairs should show that 
they had formed some clear and decided idea of the prin- 
ciples of colony government ; and were capable of drawing 
out something like a platform of the ground which might be 

10 laid for future and permanent tranquillity. 

I felt the truth of what my honourable friend represented ; 
but I felt my situation too. His application might have been 
made with far greater propriety to many other gentlemen. 
No man was indeed ever better disposed, or worse quahfied, 

15 for such an undertaking, than myself. Though I gave so far 
in to his opinion, that I immediately threw my thoughts into 
a sort of parliamentary form, I was by no means equally ready 
to produce them. It generally argues some degree of natural 
impotence of mind, or some want of knowledge of the world, 

20 to hazard plans of government except from a seat of au- 
thority. Propositions are made, not only ineffectually, but 
somewhat disreputably, when the minds of men are not prop- 
erly disposed for their reception ; and for my part, I am 
not ambitious of ridicule ; not absolutely a candidate for 

25 disgrace. 

Besides, Sir, to speak the plain truth, I have in general 
no very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper government ; 
nor of any politics in which the plan is to be wholly sepa- 
rated from the execution. But when I saw that anger and 

30 violence prevailed every day more and more ; and that 
things were hastening towards an incurable ahenation of 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 89 

our colonies ; I confess my caution gave way. I felt this, 
as one of those few moments in which decorum yields to 
a higher duty. Public calamity is a mighty leveller ; and 
there are occasions when any, even the slightest, chance 
of doing good, must be laid hold on, even by the most 5 
inconsiderable person. 

To restore order and repose to an empire so great and 
so distracted as ours, is, merely in the attempt, an under- 
taking that would ennoble the flights of the highest genius, 
and obtain pardon for the efforts of the meanest under- 10 
standing. Struggling a good while with these thoughts, by 
degrees I felt myself more firm. I derived, at length, some 
confidence from what in other circumstances usually pro- 
duces timidity. I grew less anxious, even from the idea 
of my own insignificance. For, judging of what you are by 15 
what you ought to be, I persuaded myself that you would 
not reject a reasonable proposition because it had nothing 
but its reason to recommend it. On the other hand, being 
totally destitute of all shadow of influence, natural or adven- 
titious, I was very sure, that, if my proposition were futile 20 
or dangerous ; if it were weakly conceived, or improperly 
timed, there was nothing exterior to it, of power to awe, 
dazzle, or delude you. You will see it just as it is : and 
you will treat it just as it deserves. 

The proposition is peace. Not peace through the me- 25 
dium of war ; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth 
of intricate and/endless negotiations ; not peace to arise 
out of universal discord, fomented from principle, in all 
parts of the empire ; not peace to depend on the juridical 
determination of perplexing questions, or the preV:ise mark- 30 
ing the shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It 



90 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

is simple peace ; sought in its natural course, and in its 
ordinary haunts. — It is peace sought in the spirit of peace ; 
and laid in principles purely pacific. I propose, by remov- 
ing the ground of the difference, and by restoring t\it former 

5 unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in the mother country, 
to give permanent satisfaction to your people ; and (far 
from a scheme of ruling by discord) to reconcile them to 
each other in the same act, and by the bond of the very 
same interest which reconciles them to British government. 

10 My idea is nothing more. Refined policy ever has been 
the parent of confusion ; and ever will be so, as long as the 
world endures. Plain good intention, which is as easily 
discovered at the first view, as fraud is surely detected at 
last, is, let me say, of no mean force in the government of 

15 mankind. Genuine simplicity of heart is an healing and 
cementing principle. My plan, therefore, being formed 
upon the most simple grounds imaginable, may disappoint 
some people, when they hear it. It has nothing to rec- 
ommend it to the pruriency of curious ears. There is 

20 nothing at all new and captivating in it. It has nothing 
of the splendour of the project, which has been lately laid 
upon your table by the noble lord in the blue riband.^ It 
does not propose to fill your lobby with squabbling colony 
agents., who will require the interposition of your mace, at 

25 every instant, to keep the peace amongst them. It does 
not institute a magnificent auction of finance, where capti- 
vated provinces come to general ransom by bidding against 
each other, until you knock down the hammer, and deter- 
mine a proportion of payments beyond all the powers of 

30 algebra to equalize and settle. 

The plan which I shall presume to suggest, derives, how- 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 91 

ever, one great advantage from the proposition and registry 
of that noble lord's project. The idea of conciliation is 
admissible. First, the House, in accepting the resolution 
moved by the noble lord, has admitted, notwithstanding the 
menacing front of our address,^ notwithstanding our heavy 5 
bill of pains and penalties — that we do not think ourselves 
precluded from all ideas of free grace and bounty. 

The House has gone further ; it has declared conciliation 
admissible, previous to any submission on the part of Amer- 
ica. It has even shot a good deal beyond that mark, and 10 
has admitted, that the complaints of our former mode of 
exerting the right of taxation were not wholly unfounded. 
That right thus exerted is .allowed to have had something 
reprehensible in it ; something unwise, or something griev- 
ous ; since, in the midst of our heat and resentment, we, of 15 
ourselves, have proposed a capital alteration ; and, in order 
to get rid of what seemed so very exceptionable, have insti- 
tuted a mode that is altogether new ; one that is, indeed, 
wholly alien from all the ancient methods and forms of par- 
liament. - 20 
\ 3 ^ '^^^ principle of this proceeding is large enough for my 
purpose. The means proposed by the noble lord for carry- 
ing his ideas into execution, I think, indeed, are very indif- 
ferently suited to the end ; and this I shall endeavour to show 
you before I sit down. But, for the present, I take my 25 
ground on the admitted principle. I mean to give peace. 
Peace implies reconciliation ; and, where there has been a 
material dispute, reconciliation does in a manner always 
imply concession on the one part or on the other. In this 
state of things I make no difficulty in affirming that the pro- 30 
posal ought to originate from us. Great and acknowledged 



92 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

force is not impaired, either in effect or in opinion, by an 
unwillingness to exert itself. The superior power may offer 
peace with honour and with safety. Such ,^n offer from such 
a power will be attributed to magnanimity. ^But the conces- 

5 sions of the weak are the concessions of fear. When such a 
one is disarmed, he is wholly at the mercy of his superior ; 
and he loses for ever that time and those chances, which, as 
they happen to all men, are the strength and resources of all 
inferior power. 

lo The capital leading questions on which you must this day 
decide, are these two : First, whether you ought to concede ; 
and secondly, what your concession ought to be. On the 
first of these questions we have gained (as I have just taken 
the liberty of observing to you) some ground. But I am 

15 sensible that a good deal more is still to be done. Indeed, 
Sir, to enable us to determine both on the one and the other 
of these great questions with a firm and precise judgment, I 
think it may be necessary to consider distinctly the true 
nature and the peculiar circumstances of the object which 

20 we have before us. Because after all our struggle, whether 
we will or not, we must govern America according to that 
nature, and to those circumstances ; and not according to 
our own imaginations ; nor according to abstract ideas of 
right ; by no means according to mere general theories of 

25 government, the resort to which appears to me, in our 
present situation, no better than arrant trifling. I shall 
therefore endeavour, with your leave, to lay before you some 
of the most material of these circumstances in as full and as 
clear a manner as I am able to state them. 

30 The first thing that we have to consider with regard to 
the nature of the object is — the number of people in the 






ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 93 

colonies. I have taken for some years a goo4 deal of pains 
on that point. I can by no calculation justify myself in 
placing the number below two millions of inhabitants of our 
own European blood and colour; besides at least 500,000 
others, who form no inconsiderable part of the strength and 5 
opulence of the whole. This, Sir, is, I believe, about the 
true number. There is no occasion to exaggerate, where 
plain truth is of so much weight and importance. But 
whether I put the present numbers too high or too low, is a 
matter of little moment. Such is the strength with which 10 
population shoots in that part of the world, that state the 
numbers as high as we will, whilst the dispute continues, the 
exaggeration ends. Whilst we are discussing any given 
magnitude, they are grown to it. Whilst we spend our time 
in deliberating on the mode of governing two millions, we 15 
shall find we have millions more to manage. Your children 
do not grow faster from infancy to manhood, than they 
spread from families to communities, and from villages to 
nations.^ 

I put this consideration of the present and the growing 20 
numbers in the front of our deliberation ; because, Sir, this 
consideration will make it evide;it to a blunter discernment 
than yours, that no partial, narrow, contracted, pinched, oc- 
casional system will be at all suitable to such an object. It 
will show you, that it is not to be considered as one of those 25 
minima "- which are out of the eye and consideration of the 
law ; not a paltry excrescence of the state ; not a mean de- 
pendent, who may be neglected with little damage, and pro- 
voked with little danger. It will prove that some degree of 
care and caution is required in the handling such an object; 30 
it will show that you ought not, in reason, to trifle with so 



94 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

large a mass of the interests and feelings of the human race. 
You could at no time do so without guilt ; and be assured 
you will not be able to do it long with impunity. 

But the population of this country, the great and growing 

5 population, though a very important consideration, will lose 
much of its weight, if not combined with other circumstances. 
The commerce of your colonies is out of all proportion be- 
yond the numbers of the people. This ground of their com- 
merce indeed has been trod some days ago, and with great 

lo ability, by a distinguished person,^ at your bar. This gentle- 
man, after thirty-five years — it is so long since he first 
appeared at the same place to plead for the commerce of 
' Great Britain — has come again before you to plead the 
same cause, without any other effect of time, than, that to 

15 the fire of imagination and extent of erudition, which even 
then marked him as one of the first literary characters of his 
age, he has added a consummate knowledge in the com- 
mercial interest of his country, formed by a long course of 
enlightened and discriminating experience. 

20 Sir, I should be inexcusable in coming after such a person 
with any detail, if a great part of the members who now fill 
the House had not the misfortune to be absent when he 
appeared at your bar. Besides, Sir, I propose to take the 
matter at periods of time somewhat different from his. 

25 There is, if I mistake not, a point of view, from whence if 
you will look at this subject, it is impossible that it should 
not make an impression upon you. 

I have in my hand two accounts ; one a comparative state 
of the export trade of England to its colonies, as it stood in 

30 the year 1704, and as it stood in the year 1772. The other 
a state of the export trade of this country to its colonies 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA, 95 

alone, as it stood in 1772, compared with the whole trade 
^ of England to all parts of the world (the colonies included) 
W^ in the year 1 704. They are from good vouchers ; the latter 
period from the accounts on your table, the earlier from an 
original manuscript of Davenant, who first estabHshed the 5 
inspector-general's office, which has been ever since his 
time so abundant a source of parliamentary information. 
^ The export trade to the colonies consists of three great 

branches. The African, which, terminating almost wholly 
in the colonies, must be put to the account of their com- 10 
merce ; ^ the West Indian ; ^ and the North American. All 
these are so interwoven, that the attempt to separate them, 
would tear to pieces the contexture of the whole ; and if 
not entirely destroy, would very much depreciate the value 
of all the parts. I therefore consider these three denomi- 15 
nations to be, what in effect they are, one trade. 

The trade to the colonies, taken on the export side, at 
the beginning of this century, that is, in the year 1704, 
stood thus : 

Exports to North America, and the West Indies . ^^483,265 20 
To Africa 86,665 

;^569»930 

-\ In the year 1772, which I take as a middle year between 

the highest and lowest of those lately laid on your table, the 
account was as follows : 25 

To North America, and the West Indies . . ;^4,79i,734 

To Africa 866,398 

To which if you add the export trade from Scotland, 

which had in 1704 no existence .... 364,000 

;^6,022,I32 30 



96 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

From five hundred and odd thousand, it has grown to six 
miUions. It has increased no less than twelve-fold. This is 
the state of the colony trade, as compared with itself at 
these two periods, within this century; — and this is matter 
5 for meditation. But this is not all. ' Examine my second 
account. See how the export trade to the colonies alone in 
1772 stood in the other point of view, that is, as compared 
to the whole trade of England in 1 704. 

The whole export trade of England, including that to 

10 the colonies, in 1704 ;^6,5O9,O0O 

Export t^the colonies alone, in 1772 . . . 6,024,000 

Difference ;^485,ooo 

The trade with America alone is now within less than 
;£5 00,000 of being equal to what this great commercial 

15 nation, England, carried on at the beginning of this century 
with the whole world ! If I had taken the largest year of 
those on your table, it would rather have exceeded. But, it 
will be said, is not this American trade an unnatural pro- 
tuberance, that has drawn the juices from the rest of the 

20 body? The reverse. It is the very food that has nourished 
every other part into its present magnitude. Our general 
trade has been greatly augmented, and augmented more or 
less in almost every part to which it ever extended ; but 
with this material difference, that of the six millions which 

25 in the beginning of the century constituted the whole mass 
of our export commerce, the colony trade was but one-twelfth 
part ; it is now (as a part of sixteen millions) considerably 
more than a third of the whole. This is the relative propor- 
tion of the importance of the colonies at these two periods : 

30 and all reasoning concerning our mode of treating them 



ON CONCILIATION WI^ AMERICA. 97 

% 

must have' this proportion as its basis, or it is a reasoning 
weak, rotten, and sophistical.^ '^' 

Mr. Speaker, I cannot prevail on myself t<^hurry over this 
great consideration. It is good for us to be Rre. We stand 
where we have an immense view of what is, and what is past. 5 
Clouds, indeed, and darkness rest MDon the future. * Let us, 
however, before we descend from thi?noble eminence, reflect 
that this growth of our national prosperity has happened 
within the short period of the life of man. It has happened 
within sixty-eight years. There are those alive whose mem- 10 
ory might touch the two extremities. For instance, my Lord 
Bathurst might remember all the stages of the progress. He 
was in 1 704 of an age at least to be madAto comprehend 
such things. He was then old enough acta )m^ent7im jam 
legere, et qucB sit potei'it cognoscere virtus'^ — Suppose, Sir, tl^t 
the angel of this auspicious youth, foreseeing the many vir- 
tues, which made him one of the most amiable, as he is one 
of the most fortunate, men of his age, had opened W him in 
vision, that when, in the fourth generation, the ,third prince 
of the House of Brunswick had sat twelve years on 4he 
throne of that nation, which (by the happy issue of moder 
and healing councils) was to be made Great Britain 
should see his son,^ Lord Chancellor of England, turn 
the current of hereditary dignity to its fountain, and rai 
him to a higher rank of peerage, whilst he enriched the 25 
family with a new one — If amidst, these bright and happy 
scenes of domestic honour and prosperity, that angel should 
have drawn up the curtain, and unfolded the rising glories 
of his country, and whilst he was gazing with admiration on 
the then commercial grandeur of England, the genius should 30 
point out to him a httle speck, scarce visible in the mass of 




3 ON CONCIlfATION WITH AMERICA. 



the national interest, a small seminal principle, rather than 

a formed body, and should tell him — '' Young man, there 
is America — which at this day senses for little more than to 
amuse you with stories of savage men, and uncouth manners ; 
yet shall, before you taste of death, show itself equal to the 
whole of that commerc^which now attracts the envy of the 
world. Whatever England has been growing to by a pro- 
gressive increase of improvement, brought in by varieties of 
people, by succession of civilizing conquests and civilizing 

• settlements in a series of seventeen hundred years, you shall 
see as much added to her by America in the course of a 
single life ! " If this state of his country had been foretold 

|lo him, would it not require all the sanguine credulity of 

youth, and ^1 the fervid glow of enthusiasm, to make him 

believe it? ' Fortunate man, he has lived to see it ! Fortu- 

/ . . 

nate indeed, if he lives to see nothing that shall vary the 

prospect and cloud the setting of his day ! ^ 

Exciife me, Sir, if turning from such thoughts I resume 

this comparative view once more. You have seen it on a 

la»ge scale ; look at it on a small one. I will point out to 

)ur attention a particular instance of it in the single prov- 

of Pennsylvania. In the year 1704, that province 

id for ;,^i 1,459 in value of your commodities, native 

nt^^p^and foreign. This was the whole. What did it demand in 

25 1772? Why nearly fifty times as much; for in that year 

the export to Pennsylvania was ;£5 07,909, nearly equal to 

the export to all the colonies together in the first period. 

I choose. Sir, to enter into these minute and particular 

details; because generalities, which in all other cases are 

30 apt to heighten and raise the subject, have here a tendency 

to sink it. When we speak of the commerce with our colo- 




W 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 99 

nies, fiction lags after truth ; invention is unfruitful, and 
imagination cold and barren. 

So far, Sir, as to the importance of the object in view of 
its commerce, as concerned in the exports from England. 
If I were to detail the imports, I could show how many 5 
enjoyments they procure, which deceive the burthen of life ; 
how many materials which invigorate the springs of national 
industry, and extend and animate every part of our foreign 
and domestic commerce. This would be a curious subject 
indeed — but I must prescribe bounds to myself in a matter 10 
so vast and various. 

-v I pass therefore to the colonies in another point of view, 

their agriculture. This they have prosecuted with such a 
spirit, that, besides feeding plentifully their own growing 
multitude, their annual export of grain, comprehending rice, 15 
has some years ago exceeded a million in value. Of their 
last harvest, I am persuaded they will export much more. 
At the beginning of the century some of these colonies 
imported corn from the mother country. For some time 
past, the Old World has been fed from the New. The 20 
scarcity which you have felt would have been a desolating 
famine, if this child of your old age, with a true fihal piety, . ,. 
with a Roman charity,^ had not put the full breast of its^? 
youthful exuberance to the mouth of its exhausted parent. 

' ' , As to the wealth which the colonies have drawn from the 25 
-n sea by their fisheries, you had all that matter fully opened at 
your bar. You surely thought these acquisitions of value, 
for they seemed even to excite your envy ; and yet the spirit 
by which that enterprising employment has been exercised, 
ought rather, in my opinion, to have raised your esteem and j^o 
admiration. And pray, Sir, what in the world is equal to it? 



100 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

Pass by the other parts, and look at the manner in which 
the people of New England have of late carried on the whale 
fishery. Whilst we follow them among the tumbling moun- 
tains cTf ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest 

5 frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits, whilst 
we are looking for them beneath the arctic circle, we hear 
that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, 
that they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen 
serpent of the south.^ Falkland Island,^ which seemed too 

10 remote and romantic an object for the grasp of national 
ambition, is but a stage and resting-place in the progress of 
their victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more 
discouraging to them, than the accumulated winter of both 
the poles. We know that whilst some of them draw the 

15 line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run 
the longitude, and pursue their gigantic game along the 
coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. 
No climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the 
perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the 

20 dexterous and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever car- 
ried this most perilous mode of hard industry to the extent 
to which it has been pushed by this recent people ; a people 
who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hard- 
ened into the bone of manhood. When I contemplate these 

25 things ; when I know that the colonies in general owe little 
or nothing to any care of ours, and that they are not squeezed 
into this happy form by the constraints of watchful and sus- 
picious government, but that, through a wise and salutary 
neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own 

30 way to perfection ; when I reflect upon these effects, when I 
see how profitable they have been to us, I feel all the pride 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 101 

of power sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human 
contrivances melt and die away within me. My rigour 
relents. I pardon something to the spirit of liberty.^ 

I am sensible, Sir, that all which I have asserted in my 
detail, is admitted in the gross ; but that quite a different 5 
conclusion is drawn from it. America, gentlemen say, is a 
noble object. It is an object well worth fighting for. Cer- 
tainly it is, if fighting a people be the best way of gaining 
them. Gentlemen in this respect will be led to their choice 
of means by their complexions and their habits. Those who 10 
understand the military art, will of course have some pred- 
ilection for it. Those who wield the thunder of the state, 
may have more confidence in the efficacy of arms. But I 
confess, possibly for want of this knowledge, my opinion is 
much more in favour of prudent management, than of force ; 15 
considering force not as an odious, but a feeble instrument, 
for preserving a people so numerous, so active, so growing, 
so spirited as this, in a profitable and subordinate connexion _ 
with us. 

First, Sir, permit me to observe, that the use of force 20 
alone is but iempoj-ary. It may subdue for a moment ; but 
it does not remove the necessity of subduing again : and a 
nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be con- 
quered. 

My next objection is its uncertainty. Terror is not 25 
always the effect of force ; and an armament is not a 
victory. If you do not succeed, you are without resource ; 
for, conciliation failing, force remains ; but, force failing, 
no furthur hope of reconciliation is left. Power and author- 
ity are sometimes bought by kindness ; but they can never be 30 
begged as alms by an impoverished and defeated violence. 



102 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

A further objection to force is, that you impaij- the object 
by your very endeavours to preserve it. The thing you 
fought for is not the thing which you recover ; but depre- 
ciated, sunk, wasted, and consumed in the contest. Nothing 

5 less will content me, than whole America. I do not choose 
to consume its strength along with our own ; because in all 
parts it is the British strength that I consume. I do not 
choose to be caught by a foreign enemy at the end of this 
exhausting conflict ; and still less in the midst of it. I may 

10 escape ; but 1 can make no insurance against such an event. 
'^ Let me add, that I do not choose wholly to break the 
American spirit ; because it is the spirit that has made the 
— country. 

Lastly, we have no sort of experience in favour of force 

15 as an instrument in the rule of our colonies. Their growth 
and their utility has been owing to methods altogether 
different. Our ancient indulgence has been said to be 
pursued to a fault. It may be so. But we know if feeling 
is evidence, that our fault was more tolerable than our 

20 attempt to mend it ; and our sin far more salutary than our 
penitence. 

These, Sir, are my reasons for not entertaining that high 
opinion of untried force, by which many gentlemen, for 
whose sentiments in other particulars I have great respect, 

25 seem to be so greatly captivated. But there is still behind 
a third consideration concerning this object, which serves 
to determine my opinion on the sort of pohcy which ought 
to be pursued in the management of America, even more 
than its population and its commerce, I mean its temper and 

30 character. 

In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA, 103 

the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes 
the whole : and as an ardent is always a jealous affection, 
your colonies become suspicious, restive, and untractable, 
whenever they see the least attempt to wrest from them by 
force, or shuffle from them by chicane, what they think the 5 
only advantage worth living for. This fierce spirit of liberty 
is stronger in the English colonies probably than in any 
other people of the earth ; and this from a great variety of 
powerful causes ; which, to understand the true temper of 
their minds, and the direction which this spirit takes, it will 10 
not be amiss to lay open somewhat more largely.^ 

First, the people of the colonies are descendants of 
Enghshmen. England, Sir, is a nation, which still I hope 
respects, and formerly adored, her freedom. The colonists 
emigrated from you when this part of your character was 15 
most predominant ; and they took this bias and direction 
the moment they parted from your hands. They are there- 
fore not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to 
English ideas, and on English principles. Abstract liberty, 
like other mere abstractions, is not to be found. Liberty 20 
inheres in some sensible object ; and every nation has 
formed to itself some favourite point, which by way of emi- 
nence becomes the criterion of their happiness. It hap- 
pened, you know, Sir, that the great contests for freedom 
in this country were from the earUest times chiefly upon the 25 
question of taxing. Most of the contests in the ancient 
commonwealths turned primarily on the right of election of 
magistrates ; or on the balance among the several orders of 
the state. The question of money was not with them so 
immediate. But in England it was otherwise. On this 30 
point of taxes the ablest pens, and most eloquent tongues, 






104 ON CONCILIATION- WITH AMERICA. 

have been exercised ; the greatest spirits have acted and 
suffered. In order to give the fullest satisfaction concern- 
ing the importance of this point, it was not only necessary 
for those who in argument defended the excellence of the 

5 English constitution, to insist on this privilege of granting 
money as a dry point of fact, and to prove, that the right 
had been acknowledged in ancient parchments, and blind 
usages, to reside in a certain body called a House of Com- 
mons. They went much farther ; they attempted to prove, 

lo and they succeeded, that in theory it ought to be so, from 
the particular nature of a House of Commons, as an imme- 
diate representative of the people ; whether the old records 
had delivered this oracle or not. They took infinite pains 
to inculcate, as a fundamental principle, that in all mon- 

15 archies the people must in effect themselves, mediately or 
immediately, possess the power of granting their own money, 
or no shadow of liberty could subsist. The colonies draw 
from you, as with their life-blood, these ideas and principles. 
Their love of liberty, as with you, fixed and attached on 

20 this specific point of taxing. Liberty might be safe, or 
might be endangered, in twenty other particulars, without 
their being much pleased or alarmed. Here they felt its 
pulse ; and as they found that beat, they thought them- 
selves sick or sound. I do not say whether they were right 

25 or wrong in applying your general arguments to their own 
case. It is not easy indeed to make a monopoly of theo- 
rems and corollaries. The fact is, that they did thus apply 
those general arguments ; and your mode of governing 
them, whether through lenity or indolence, through wisdom 

30 or mistake, confirmed them in the imagination, that they, as 
well as you, had an interest in these common principles. 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 105 

They were further confirmed in this pleasing error by the 
form of their provincial legislative assemblies. Their gov- 
ernments are popular in a high degree ; some are merely 
popular ; in all, the popular representative is the most 
weighty ; and this share of the people in their ordinary gov- 5 
ernment never fails to inspire them with lofty sentiments, 
and with a strong aversion from whatever tends to deprive 
them of their chief importance. 

If anything were wanting to this necessary operation of 
the form of government, religion would have given it a com- 10 
plete effect. Religion, always a principle of energy, in this 
new people is no way worn out or impaired ; and their mode 
of professing it is also one main cause of this free spirit. 
The people are Protestants ; and of that kind which is the 
most adverse to all implicit submission of mind and opinion. 15 
This is a persuasion not only favourable to liberty, but built 
upon it. I do not think, Sir, that the reason of this averse- 
ness in the dissenting churches, from all that looks like abso- 
lute government, is so much to be sought in their religious 
tenets, as in their history. Every one knows that the 20 
Roman Catholic religion is at least coeval with most of the 
governments where it prevails; that it has generally gone 
hand in hand with them, and received great favour and 
every kind of support from authority. The Church of Eng- 
land too was formed from her cradle under the nursing care 25 
of regular government. But the dissenting interests have 
sprung up in direct opposition to all the ordinary powers of 
the world ; and could justify that opposition only on a strong 
claim to natural liberty. Their very existence depended on 
the powerful and unremitted assertion of that claim. All 30 
Protestantism, even the most cold and passive, is a sort of • 



106 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

dissent. But the religion most prevalent in our northern 
colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is 
the dissidence of dissent, and the Protestantism of the Pro- 
testant religion.^ This religion, under a variety of denomi- 

5 nations agreeing in nothing but in the communion of the 
spirit of liberty, is predominant in most of the northern prov- 
inces; where the Church of England, notwithstanding its 
legal rights, is in reality no more than a sort of private sect, 
not composing most probably the tenth of the people. The 

10 colonists left England when this spirit was high, and in the 
emigrants was the highest of all ; and even that stream of 
foreigners, which has been constantly flowing into these 
colonies, has, for the greatest part, been composed of dis- 
senters from the establishments of their several countries, 

15 and have brought with them a temper and character far 
from alien to that of the people with whom they mixed. 

Sir, I can perceive by their manner, that some gentlemen 
object to the latitude of this description; because in the 
southern colonies the Church of England forms a large body, 

20 and has a regular establishment. It is certainly true. There 
is, however, a circumstance attending these colonies, which, 
in my opinion, fully counterbalances this difference, and 
makes the spirit of liberty still more high and haughty than 
in those to the northward. It is, that in Virginia and the 

25 Carolinas they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where this 
is the case in any part of the world, those who are free, are 
by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom. Free- 
dom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank 
and privilege. Not seeing there, that freedom, as in coun- 

30 tries where it is a common blessing, and as broad and gen- 
eral as the air, may be united with much abject toil, with 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 107 

great misery, with all the exterior of servitude, liberty looks, 
amongst them, like something that is more noble and liberal. 
I do not mean, Sir, to commend the superior morality of this 
sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue in it ; 
but I cannot alter the nature of man. The fact is so ; and 5 
these people of the southern colonies are much more strongly, 
and with a higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to lib- 
erty, than those to the northward. Such were all the ancient 
commonwealths ; such were our Gothic ancestors ; such in 
our days were the Poles ; ^ and such will be all masters of 10 
slaves, who are not slaves themselves. In such a people, 
the haughtiness of domination combines with the spirit of 
freedom, fortifies it, and renders it invincible. 

Permit me. Sir, to add another circumstance in our colo- 
nies, which contributes no mean part towards the growth 15 
and effect of this untractable spirit. I mean their education. 
In no country perhaps in the world is the law so general a 
study.^ The profession itself is numerous and powerful ; and 
in most provinces it takes the lead. The greater number of 
the deputies sent to the congress were lawyers. But all who 20 
read, and most do read, endeavour to obtain some smat- 
tering in that science. I have been told by an eminent 
bookseller, that in no branch of his business, after tracts of 
popular devotion, were so many books as those on the law 
exported to the plantations. The colonists have now fallen 25 
into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear 
that they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's Com- 
mentaries in America as in England. General Gage marks 
out this disposition very particularly in a letter on your 
table. He states, that all the people in his government are 30 
lawyers, or smatterers in law ; and that in Boston they have 



108 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

been enabled, by successful chicane, wholly to evade many 
parts of one of your capital penal constitutions.-^ The smart- 
ness of debate will say, that this knowledge ought to teach 
them more clearly the rights of legislature, their obligations 

5 to obedience, and the penalties of rebellion. All this is 
mighty well. But my honourable and learned friend^ on the 
floor, who condescends to mark what I say for animadversion, 
will disdain that ground. He has heard, as well as I, that 
when great honours and great emoluments do not win over 

10 this knowledge to the service of the state, it is a formidable 
adversary to government. If the spirit be not tamed and 
broken by these happy methods, it is stubborn and litigious. 
Abeiint studia in mores? This study renders men acute, in- 
quisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defence, full 

15 of resources. In other countries, the people, more simple, 
and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in gov- 
ernment only by an actual- grievance ; here they anticipate 
the evil, and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the 
badness of the principle. They augur misgovernment at a 

20 distance ; and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted 
breeze. 

. ,' The last cause of this disobedient spirit in the colonies is 
hardly less powerful than the rest, as it is not merely moral, 
but laid deep in the natural constitution of things. Three 

25 thousand miles of ocean lie between you and them. No con- 
trivance can prevent the effect of this distance in weakening 
government. Seas roll, and months pass, between the order 
and the execution ; and the want of a speedy explanation of 
a single point is enough to defeat a whole system. You 

30 have, indeed, winged ministers of vengeance,^ who carry your 
bolts in their pounces to the remotest verge of the sea. But 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 109 

there a power steps in, that limits the arrogance of raging 
passions and furious elements, and says, " So far shalt thou 
go, and no farther." Who are you, that should fret and 
rage, and bite the chains of nature ? — Nothing worse happens 
to you than does to all nations who have extensive empire ; 5 
and it happens in all the forms into which empire can be 
thrown. In large bodies, the circulation of power must be 
less vigourous at the extremities. Nature has said it. The 
Turk cannot govern Egypt, and Arabia, and Curdistan, as he 
governs Thrace ; nor has he the same dominion in Crimea 10 
and Algiers, which he has at Brusa and Smyrna. Despotism 
itself is obliged to truck and huckster. The Sultan gets such 
obedience as he can. He governs with a loose rein, that he 
may govern at all ; and the whole of the force and vigour of 
his authority in his centre is derived from a prudent relaxa- 15 
tion in all his borders. Spain, in her provinces, is, perhaps, 
not so well obeyed as you are in yours. She complies too ; 
she submits ; she watches times. This is the immutable 
condition, the eternal law, of extensive and detached empire.^ 
^, \ Then, Sir, from these six capital^sources ; of descent; of 20 
form of government ; of religion in'the northern provinces ; 
of manners in the southern ; of education ; of the remote- 
ness of situation from the first mover of government ; from 
all these causes a fierce spirit of Hberty has grown up. It 
has grown with the growth of the people in your colonies, 25 
and increased with the increase of their wealth; a spirit, 
that unhappily meeting with an exercise of power in England, 
which, however lawful, is not reconcilable to any ideas of 
liberty, much less with theirs, has kindled this flame that is 
,J ready to consume us. ^o 

U C I do not mean to commend either the spirit in this excess, 



(' 



1-10 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

or the moral causes which produce it. Perhaps a more 
smooth and accommodating spirit of freedom in them would 
be more acceptable to us. Perhaps ideas of liberty might be 
desired, more reconcilable with an arbitrary and boundless 

5 authority. Perhaps we might wish the colonists to be per- 
suaded, that their liberty is more secure when held in trust 
for th^m by us (as their guardians during a perpetual minor- 
ity) than with any part of it in their own hands. The ques- 
tion is, not whether their spirit deserves praise or blame, 

lo but — what, in the name of God, shall we do with it ? You 
have before you the object, such as it is, with all its glories, 
with all its imperfections on its head.^ You see the magni- 
tude ; the importance ; the temper ; the habits ; the dis- 
orders. By all these considerations we are strongly urged 

15 to determine something concerning it. We are called upon 
to fix some rule and line for our future conduct, which may 
give a little stability to our pohtics, and prevent the return 
of such unhappy deliberations as the present. Every such 
return will bring the matter before us in a still more un- 

20 tractable form. For, what astonishing and incredible things 
have we not seen already ! What monsters have not been 
generated from this unnatural contention ! Whilst every 
principal of authority and resistance has been pushed, upon 
both sides, as far as it would go, there is nothing so solid 

25 and certain, either in reasoning or in practice, that has not 
been shaken. Until very lately, all authority in America 
seemed to be nothing but an emanation from yours. Even 
the popular part of the colony constitution derived all its 
activity, and its first vital movement, from the pleasure of 

30 the crown. We thought, Sir, that the utmost which the dis- 
contented colonists could do, was to disturb authority ; we 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. Ill 

never dreamt they could of themselves supply it ; knowing 
in general what an operose business it is to establish a gov- 
ernment absolutely new. But having, for our purposes in 
this contention, resolved, that none but an obedient assem- 
bly should sit ; the humours of the people there, finding all 5 
passage through the legal channel stopped, with great vio- 
lence broke out another way. Some provinces have tried 
their experiment, as we have tried ours ; and theirs has suc- 
ceeded. They have formed a government sufficient for its 
purposes, without the bustle of a revolution, or the trouble- 10 
some formality of an election. Evident necessity, and tacit 
consent, have done the business in an instant. So well they 
have done it, that Lord Dunmore (the account is among the 
fragments on your table) tells you, that the new institution 
is infinitely better obeyed than the ancient government ever 15 
was in its most fortunate periods. Obedience is what makes 
government, and not the names by which it is called ; not 
the name of governor, as formerly, or committee, as at pres- 
ent. This new government has originated directly from the 
people ; and was not transmitted through any of the ordinary 20 
artificial media of a positive constitution. It was not a manu- 
facture ready formed, and transmitted to them in that con- 
dition from England. The evil arising from hence is this ; 
that the colonists having once found the possibihty of enjoy- 
ing the advantages of order in the midst of a struggle for 25 
liberty, such struggles will not henceforward seem so terrible 
to the settled and sober part of mankind as they had appeared 
before the trial. 

Pursuing the same plan of punishing by the denial of the 
exercise of government to still greater lengths, we wholly 30 
abrogated the ancient government of Massachusetts. We 



112 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

were confident that the first feehng, if not the very prospect 
of anarchy, would instandy enforce a complete submission. 
The experiment was tried. A new, strange, unexpected 
face of things appeared. Anarchy is found tolerable. A 

5 vast province has now subsisted, and subsisted in a consid- 
erable degree of health and vigour, for near a twelvemonth, 
without governor, without public council, without judges, 
without executive magistrates. How long it will continue 
in this state, or what may arise out of this unheard-of situa- 

10 tion, how can the wisest of us conjecture? Our late ex- 
perience has taught us that many of these fundamental 
principles, formerly believed infallible, are either not of the 
importance they were imagined to be ; or that we have not 
at all adverted to some other far more important and far 

15 more powerful principles, which entirely overrule those we 
had considered as omnipotent. I am much against any 
further experiments, which tend to put to the proof any 
more of these allowed opinions, which-contribute so much to 
the public tranquillity. In effect, we suffer as much at home 

20 by this loosening of all ties, and this concussion of all estab- 
lished opinions, as we do abroad. For, in order to prove 
that the Americans have no right to their liberties, we are 
every day endeavouring to subvert the maxims which preserve 
the whole spirit of our own. To prove that the Americans 

25 ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the value 
of freedom itself; and we never seem to gain a paltry ad- 
vantage over them in debate, without attacking some of those 
principles, or deriding some of those feelings, for which our 
ancestors have shed their blood. 

30 But, Sir, in wishing to put an end to pernicious experi- 
ments, I do not mean to preclude the fullest inquiry. Far 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 113 

from it. Far from deciding on a sudden or partial view, I 
would patiently go round and round the subject, and survey 
it minutely in every possible aspect. Sir, if I were capable 
of engaging you to an equal attention, I would state, that, as 
far as I am capable of discerning, there are but three ways 5 
of proceeding relative to this stubborn spirit, which prevails 
in your colonies, and disturbs your government. These are 
— To change that spirit, as inconvenient, by removing the 
causes. To prosecute it as criminal. Or, to comply with it 
as necessary. I would not be guilty of an imperfect enum- 10 
eration ; I can think of but these three. Another has indeed 
been started, that of giving up the colonies ; but it met so 
slight a reception, that I do not think myself obliged to 
dwell a great while upon it. It is nothing but a little sally 
of anger, like the frowardness of peevish children, who, when 15 
they cannot get all they would have, are resolved to take 
nothing. 

The first of these plans, to change the spirit as incon- 
venient, by removing the causes, I think is the most like a 
systematic proceeding. It is radical in its principle ; but it 20 
is attended with great difficulties, some of them little short, 
as I conceive, of impossibiUties. This will appear by ex- 
amining into the plans which have been proposed. 

As the growing population in the colonies is evidently one 
cause of their resistance, it was last session mentioned in both 25 
Houses, by men of weight, and received not without applause, 
that in order to check this evil, it would be proper for the 
crown to make no further grants of land. But to this scheme 
there are two objections. The first, that there is already so 
much unsettled land in private hands, as to afford room for 30 
an immense future population, although the crown not only 



114 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

withheld its grants, but annihilated its soil. If this be the 
case, then the only effect of this avarice of desolation, this 
hoarding of a royal wilderness, would be to raise the value 
of the possessions in the hands of the great private monop- 

5 olists, without any adequate check to the growing and 
alarming mischief of population. 

But if you stopped your grants, what would be the conse- 
quence ? The people would occupy without grants. They 
have already so occupied in many places. You cannot 

10 station garrisons in every part of these deserts. If you 
drive the people from one place, they will carry on their 
annual tillage, and remove with their flocks and herds to 
another. Many of the people in the back settlements are 
already Uttle attached to particular situations. Already they 

15 have topped the Appalachian mountains. From thence they 
behold before them an immense plain, one vast, rich, level 
meadow ; a square of five hundred miles. Over this they 
would wander without a possibihty of restraint ; they world 
change their manners with the habits of their Hfe ; would 

20 soon forget a government by which they were disowned ; 
would become hordes of English Tartars ; and pouring 
down upon your unfortified frontiers a fierce and irresistible 
cavalry, become masters of your governors and your coun- 
sellors, your collectors and comptrollers, and of all the slaves 

25 that adhered to them. Such would, and, in no long time, 
must be, the effect of attempting to forbid as a crime, and to 
suppress as an evil, the command and blessing of Providence, 
" Increase and multiply." Such would be the happy result 
of an endeavour to keep as a lair of wild beasts, that earth, 

30 which God, by an express charter, has given to the children 
of men. Far different, and surely much wiser, has been our 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 115 

policy hitherto. Hitherto we have invited our people, by 
every kind of bounty, to fixed establishments. We have in- 
vited the husbandman to look to authority for his title. We 
have taught him piously to believe in the mysterious virtue 
of wax and parchment. We have thrown each tract of land, 5 
as it was peopled, into districts ; that the ruling power should 
never be wholly out of sight. We have settled all we could ; 
and we have carefully attended every settlement with gov- 
ernment. ,5* \yjsi ^yylC^ ? -: .^^ " ' 

Adhering, Sir, as I do, to this policy, as well as for the 10 
reasons I have just given, I think this new project of hedg- 
ing-in population to be neither prudent nor practicable. 

To impoverish the colonies in general, and in particular to 
arrest the noble course of their marine enterprises, would be 
a more easy task. I freely confess it. We have shown a 15 
disposition to a system of this kind ; a disposition even to 
continue the restraint after the offence ; looking on ourselves 
as rivals to our colonies, and persuaded that of course we 
must gain all that they shall lose. Much mischief we may 
certainly do. The power inadequate to all other things is 20 
often more than sufficient for this. I do not look on the 
direct and immediate power of the colonies to resist our 
violence as very formidable. In this, however, I may be 
mistaken. But when I consider, that we have colonies for 
no purpose but to be serviceable to us, it seems to my poor 25 
understanding a Uttle preposterous, to make them unservice- 
able, in order to keep them obedient. It is, in truth, noth- 
ing more than the old, and, as I thought, exploded problem 
of tyranny, which proposes to beggar its subjects into sub- 
mission. But remember, when you have completed your 30 
system of impoverishment, that nature still proceeds in her 



116 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

ordinary course ; that discontent will increase with misery ; 
and that there are critical moments in the fortune of all 
states, when they who are too weak to contribute to your 
prosperity, may be strong enough to complete your ruin. 

5 Spoliatis ai'tna supersuiit} 

The temper and character which prevail in our colonies 
are, I am afraid, unalterable by any human art. We cannot, 
I fear, falsify the pedigree of this fierce people, and persuade 
them that they are not sprung from a nation in whose veins 

10 the blood of freedom circulates. The language in which 
they would hear you tell them this tale would detect the im- 
position ; your speech would betray you. An EngHshman 
is the unfittest person on earth to argue another Englishman 
into slavery. 
^ I think it is nearly as Httle in our power to change their 
republican rehgion, as their free descent ; or to substitute 
the Roman CathoUc, as a penalty ; or the Church of England, 
as an improvement. The mode of inquisition and dragoon- 
ing is going out of fashion in the Old World ; and I should 

2o not confide much to their efficacy in the New. The edu- 
cation of the Americans is also on the same unalterable 
bottom with their religion. You cannot persuade them to 
burn their books of curious science ; to banish their lawyers 
from their courts of laws ; or to quench the lights of their 

25 assemblies, by refusing to choose those persons who are best 
read in their privileges. It would be no less impracticable to 
think of wholly annihilating the popular assemblies, in which 
these lawyers sit. The army, by which we must govern in 
their place, would be far more chargeable to us ; not quite 

30 so effectual ; and perhaps, in the end, full as difficult to be 
kept in obedience.^ 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 117 

With regard to the high aristocratic spirit of Virginia and 
the southern colonies, it has been proposed, I know, to re- 
duce it, by declaring a general enfranchisement of their 
slaves. This project has had its advocates and panegyrists ; 
yet I never could argue myself into any opinion of it. Slaves 5 
are often much attached to their masters. A general wild 
offer of liberty would not always be accepted. History fur- 
nishes few instances of it. It is sometimes as hard to per- 
suade slaves to be free, as it is to compel freemen to be slaves ; 
and in this auspicious scheme, we should have both these 10 
pleasing tasks on our hands at once. But when we talk of 
enfranchisement, do we not perceive that the American 
master may enfranchise too ; and arm servile hands in de- 
fence of freedom ? A measure to which other people have 
had recourse more than once, and not without success, in a 15 
desperate situation of their affairs. 

Slaves as these unfortunate black people are, and dull as 
all men are from slavery, must they not a Httle suspect the 
offer of freedom from that very nation which has sold them 
to their present masters? from that nation, one of whose 20 
causes of quarrel with those masters is their refusal to deal 
any more in that inhuman traffic? An offer of freedom from 
England would come rather oddly, shipped to them in an 
African vessel, which is refused an entry into the ports of 
Virginia or Carolina, with a cargo of three Angola negroes. 25 
It would be curious to see the Guinea captain attempting at 
the same instant to publish his proclamation of hberty, and 
to advertise his sale of slaves. 

But let us suppose all these moral difficulties got over. 
The ocean remains. You cannot pump this dry; and as 30 
long as it continues in its present bed, so long all the causes 



lis ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

which weaken authority by distance will continue. *' Ye gods, 
annihilate but space and time, and make two lovers happy ! "^ 
— was a pious and passionate prayer ; — but just as reason- 
able, as many of the serious wishes of very grave and solemn 

5 politicians. 

If then. Sir, it seems almost desperate to think of any 
alterative course, for changing the moral causes (and not 
quite easy to remove the natural) which produce prejudices 
irreconcilable to the late exercise of our authority ; but that 

10 the spirit infallibly will continue ; and, continuing, will pro- 
duce such effects as now embarrass us ; the second mode 
under consideration is, to prosecute that spirit in its overt uifti^^ 
acts, as criininal. ^J'' 

^ At this proposition I must pause a moment. The thing 

15 seems a great deal too big for my ideas of jurisprudence. 
It should seem to my way of conceiving such matters, that 
there is a very wide difference in reason and policy, between 
the mode of proceeding on their regular conduct of scattered 
individuals, or even of bands of men, who disturb order 

20 within the state, and the civil dissensions which may, from 
time to time, on great questions, agitate the several commu- 
nities which compose a great empire. It looks to me to be 
narrow and pedantic, to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal 
justice to this great public contest. I do not know the 

25 method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people. 
I cannot insult and ridicule the feelings of millions of my 
fellow-creatures, as Sir Edward Coke insulted one excellent 
individual (Sir Walter Raleigh) at the bar.^ I hope I am 
not ripe to pass sentence on the gravest public bodies, 

30 intrusted with magistracies of great authority and dignity, 
and charged with the safety of their fellow-citizens, upon the 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 119 

very same title that I am. I really think, that for wise men 
this is not judicious ; for sober men, not decent ; for minds 
tinctured with humanity, not mild and merciful. 

Perhaps, Sir, I am mistaken in my idea of an empire, as 
distinguished from a single state or kingdom. But my idea 5 
of it is this ; that an empire is the aggregate of many states 
under one common head ; whether this head be a monarch, 
or a presiding republic. It does, in such constitutions, fre- 
quently happen (and nothing but the dismal, cold, dead 
uniformity of servitude can prevent its happening) that the 10 
subordinate parts may have many local privileges and immu- 
nities. Between these privileges and the supreme common 
authority the Hne may be extremely nice. Of course disputes, 
often, too, very bitter disputes, and much ill blood, will arise. 
But though every privilege is an exemption (in the case) from 15 
the ordinary exercise of the supreme authority, it is no denial 
of it. The claim of a privilege seems rather, ex vi te7'7iiini^ 
to imply a superior power. For to talk of the privileges of 
a state, or of a person, who has no superior, is hardly any 
better than speaking nonsense. Now, in such unfortunate 20 
quarrels among the component parts of a great pohtical 
union of communities, I can scarcely conceive anything 
more completely imprudent, than for the head of the empire 
to insist, that, if any privilege is pleaded against his will, or 
his acts, his whole authority is denied ; instantly to proclaim 25 
rebellion, to beat to arms, and to put the offending provinces 
under the ban. Will not this, Sir, very soon teach the prov- 
inces to make no distinctions on their part? Will it not 
teach them that the government, against which a claim of 
liberty is tantamount to high treason, is a government to 30 
which submission is equivalent to slavery? It may not 



120 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

always be quite convenient to impress dependent communi- 
ties with such an idea. 

h We are indeed, in all disputes with the colonies, by the 
necessity of things, the judge. It is true, Sir. But I con- 

5 fess, that the character of judge in my own cause is a thing 
that frightens me. Instead of filling me with pride, I am 
exceedingly humbled by it. I cannot proceed with a stern, 
assured, judicial confidence, until I find myself in something 
more like a judicial character. I must have these hesita- 

lo tions as long as I am compelled to recollect, that, in my lit- 
tle reading upon such contests as these, the sense of man- 
kind has, at least, as often decided against the superior as 
the subordinate power. Sir, let me add too, that the opinion 
of my having ^some abstract right in my favour, would not 

J5 put me much at my ease in passing sentence; unless I could 
be sure, that there were no rights which, in their exercise 
under certain circumstances, were not the most odious of all 
wrongs, and the most vexatious of all injustice. Sir, these 
considerations have great weight with me, when I find things 

20 so circumstanced, that I see the same party, at once a civil 
litigant against me in point of right, and a culprit before me ; 
while I sit as a criminal judge, on acts of his, whose moral 
quality is to be decided upon the merits of that very litiga- 
tion. Men are every now and then put, by the complexity 

25 of human affairs, into strange situations ; but justice is the 

same, let the judge be in what situation he will. 

qf There is. Sir, also a circumstance which convinces me, 

that this mode of criminal proceeding is not (at least in the 

present stage of our contest) altogether expedient ; which is 

30 nothing less than the conduct of those very persons who 
have seemed to adopt that mode, by lately declaring a 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 121 

rebellion in Massachusetts Bay, as they had formerly ad- 
dressed to have traitors brought hither, under an act of 
Henry the Eighth, for trial. For though rebellion is de- 
clared, it is not proceeded against as such ; nor have any 
steps been taken towards the apprehension or conviction of 5 
any individual offender, either on our late or our former 
address ; but modes of pubHc coercion have been adopted, 
and such as have much more resemblance to a sort of quali- 
fied hostility towards an independent power than the punish- 
ment of rebellious subjects. All this seems rather incon- 10 
sistent ; but it shows how difficult it is to apply these juridi- 
cal ideas to our present case. 

In this situation, let us seriously and coolly ponder. What 
is it we have got by all our menaces, which have been many 
and ferocious? What advantage have we derived from the 15 
penal laws we have passed, and which, for the time, have 
been severe and numerous ? What advances have we made 
towards our object, by the sending of a force, which, by 
land and sea, is no contemptible strength? Has the dis- 
order abated ? Nothing less. — When I see things in this 20 
situation, after such confident hopes, bold promises, and 
active exertions, I cannot, for my life, avoid a suspicion, 
that the plan itself is not correctly right. 

If then the removal of the causes of this spirit of Ameri- 
can liberty be, for the greater part, or rather entirely, im- 25 
practicable ; if the ideas of criminal process be inapplicable, 
or if applicable, are in the highest degree inexpedient ; what 
way yet remains? No way is open, but the third and last 
— to comply with the American spirit as necessary ; or, if 
you please, to submit to it as a necessary evil. 30 

If we adopt this mode ; if we mean to conciliate and con- 



122 ON CONCILIA TION WITH AMERICA. 

cede ; let us see of what nature the concession ought to be ; 
to ascertain the nature of our concession, we must look at 
their complaint. The colonies complain, that they have 
not the characteristic mark and seal of British freedom. 

5 They complain, that they are taxed in a parliament in which 
they are not represented. If you mean to satisfy them at 
all, you must satisfy them with regard to this complaint. 
If you mean to please any people, you must give them the 
boon which they ask ; not what you may think better for 

10 them, but of a kind totally different. Such an act may be a 
wise regulation, but it is no concession : whereas our pres- 
ent theme is the mode of giving satisfaction. 
i**^ Sir, I think you must perceive, that I am resolved this day 
to have nothing at all to do with the question of the right of 

15 taxation.^ Some gentlemen startle — but it is true ; I put it 
totally out of the question. It is less than nothing in my 
consideration. I do not indeed wonder, nor will you. Sir, 
that gentlemen of profound learning are fond of displaying 
it on this profound subject. But my consideration is nar- 

20 row, confined, and wholly limited to the policy of the ques- 
tion. I do not examine, whether the giving away a man's 
money be a power excepted and reserved out of the general 
trust of government ; and how far all mankind, in all forms 
of polity, are entitled to an exercise of that right by the 

25 charter of nature. Or whether, on the contrary, a right of 
taxation is necessarily involved in the general principle of 
legislation, and inseparable from the ordinary supreme 
power. These are deep questions, where great names mili- 
tate against each other ; where reason is perplexed ; and an 

30 appeal to authorities only thickens the confusion. For high 
and reverend authorities lift up their heads on both sides ; 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 123 

and there is no sure footing in the middle. This point is 
the great Serbo7iian bog, betwixt Damiata and Mount 
Casius old, where armies whole have sunk} I do not 
intend to be overwhehned in that bog, though in such 
respectable company. The question with me is, not 5 
whether you have a right to render your people miserable ; 
but whether it is not your interest to make them happy. It 
is not, what a lawyer te-lls me I may do ; but what humanity, 
reason, and justice tell me I ought to do. Is a poHtic act 
the worse for being a generous one? Is no concession 10 
proper, but that which is made from your want of right to 
keep what you grant ? Or does it lessen the grace or dig- 
nity of relaxing in the exercise of an odious claim, because 
you have your evidence-room full of titles, and your maga- 
zines stuffed with arms to enforce them? What signify all 15 
those titles, and all those arms? Of what avail are they, 
when the reason of the thing tells me, that the assertion of 
my title is the loss of my suit ; and that I could do nothing 
but wound myself by the use of my own weapons?^ 
l^ Such is stedfastly my opinion of the absolute necessity of 20 
keeping up the concord of this empire by a unity of spirit, 
though in a diversity of operations, that, if I were sure the 
colonists had, at their leaving this country, sealed a regular 
compact of servitude ; that they had solemnly abjured all 
the rights of citizens ; that they had made a vow to renounce 25 
all ideas of liberty for them and their posterity to all genera- 
tions ; yet I should hold myself obhged to conform to the 
temper I found universally prevalent in my own day, and to 
govern two milHons of men, impatient of servitude, on the 
principles of freedom. I am not determining a point of 30 
law ; I am restoring tranquilHty ; and the general character 



124 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

and situation of a people must determine what sort of gov- 
ernment is fitted for them. That point nothing else can or 
ousfht to determine. 
' My idea, therefore, without considering whether we yield 

5 as matter of right, or grant as matter of favour, is to adiiiit 
the people of our colonies into an interest in the constitution ; 
and, by recording that admission in the journals of parlia- 
ment, to give them as strong an assurance as the nature of 
the thing will admit, that we mean forever to adhere to that 

lo solemn declaration of systematic indulgence. 

\ Some years ago, the repeal of a revenue act, upon its 
understood principle, might have served to show, that we 
intended an unconditional abatement of the exercise of a 
taxing power. Such a measure was then sufficient to 

15 remove all suspicion, and to give perfect content. But 
unfortunate events, since that time, may make something 
further necessary ; and not more necessary for the satisfac- 
tion of the colonies, than for the dignity and consistency of 
our own future proceedings. 

20 I have taken a very incorrect measure of the disposition 
of the House, if this proposal in itself would be received 
with dislike. I think, Sir, we have few American financiers. 
But our misfortune is, we are too acute ; we are too exqui- 
site in our conjectures of the future, for men oppressed with 

25 such great and present evils. The more moderate among 
the opposers of parliamentary concession freely confess, 
that they hope no good from taxation ; but they apprehend 
the colonists have further views ; and if this point were 
conceded, they would instantly attack the trade laws. 

30 These gentlemen are convinced, that this was the intention 
from the beginning f and the quarrel of the Americans with 



ON CONCILIA TION WITH AMERICA, 125 

taxation was no more than a cloak and cover to this design. 
Such has been the language even of a gentleman ^ of real 
moderation, and of a natural temper well adjusted to fair 
and equal government. I am, however, Sir, not a little sur- 
prised at this kind of discourse, whenever I hear it ; and I 5 
am the more surprised, on account of the arguments which 
I constantly find in company with it, and which are often 
urged from the same mouths, and on the same day. 

For instance, when we allege, that it is against reason to 
tax a people under so many restraints in trade as the Ameri- 10 
cans,, the noble lord^ in the blue riband shall tell you, that 
the restraints on trade are futile and useless ; of no advan- 
tage to us, and of no burthen to those on whom they are 
imposed ; that the trade to America is not secured by the 
acts of navigation, but by the natural and irresistible advan- 15 
tage of a commercial preference. 

Such is the merit of the trade laws in this posture of the 
debate. But when strong internal circumstances are urged 
against the taxes ; when the scheme is dissected ; when ex- 
perience and the nature of things are brought to prove, and 20 
do prove, the utter impossibility of obtaining an effective 
revenue from the colonies ; when these things are pressed, 
or rather press themselves, so as to drive the advocates of 
colony taxes to a clear admission of the futility of the 
scheme ; then. Sir, the sleeping trade laws revive from their 25 
trance ; and this useless taxation is to be kept sacred, not 
for its own sake, but as a counter- guard and security of the 
laws of trade. 

Then, Sir, you keep up revenue laws which are mischievous, 
in order to preserve trade laws that are useless. Such is the 30 
wisdom of our plan in both its members. They are sepa- 



126 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

rately given up as of no value ; and yet one is always to be 
defended for the sake of the other. But I cannot agree 
with the noble lord, nor with the pamphlet from whence he 
seems to have borrowed these ideas/ concerning the inu- 

5 tility of the trade laws. For, without idolizing them, I am 
sure they are still, in many ways, of great use to us : and in 
former times they have been of the greatest. They do con- 
fine, and they do greatly narrow, the market for the Ameri- 
cans. But my perfect conviction of this does not help me 

10 in the least to discern how the revenue laws form any 
security whatsoever to the commercial regulations ; or that 
these commercial regulations are the true ground of the 
quarrel ; or that the giving way, in any one instance of 
authority, is to lose all that may remahi unconceded. 

15 One fact is clear and indisputable. The public and 
avowed origin of this quarrel was on taxation. This quarrel 
has indeed brought on new disputes on new questions ; but 
certainly the least bitter, and the fewest of all, on the trade 
laws. To judge which of the two be the real, radical cause 

20 of quarrel, we have to see whether the commercial dispute 
did, in order of time, precede the dispute on taxation? 
There is not a shadow of evidence for it. Next, to enable 
us to judge whether at this moment a dislike to the trade 
laws be the real cause of quarrel, it is absolutely necessary 

25 to put the taxes out of the question by a repeal. See how 
the Americans act in this position, and then you will be able 
to discern correctly what is the true object of the contro- 
versy, or whether any controversy at all will remain. Unless 
you consent to remove this cause of difference, it is impos- 

30 sible, with decency, to assert that the dispute is not upon 
what it is avowed to be. And I would. Sir, recommend to 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA, 127 

your serious consideration, whether it be prudent to form a 
rule for punishing pjople, not on their own acts, but on your 
conjectures? Surely it is preposterous at the very best. It 
is not justifying your anger, by their misconduct ; but it is 
converting your ill-will into their dehnquency. 5 

But the colonies will go further. — Alas ! alas ! when will 
this speculating against fact and reason end? — What will 
quiet these panic fears which we entertain of the hostile 
effect of a conciliatory conduct? Is it true, that no case 
can exist, in which it is proper for the sovereign to accede to lo 
the desires of his discontented subjects? Is there anything 
peculiar in this case, to make a rule for itself? Is all au- 
thority of course lost, when it is not pushed to the extreme ? 
Is it a certain maxim, that the fewer causes of dissatisfaction 
are left by government, the more the subject will be inchned 15 
to resist and rebel? 

'- All these objections being in fact no more than suspicions, 
conjectures, divinations, formed in defiance of fact and ex- 
perience ; they did not. Sir, discourage me from entertain- 
ing the idea of a concihatory concession, founded on the 20 
principles which I have just stated. 

In forming a plan for this purpose, I endeavoured to put 
myself in that frame of mind which was the most natural, 
and the most reasonable ; and which was certainly the most 
probable means of securing me from all error. I set out 25 
with a perfect distrust of my own abilities ; a total renun- 
ciation of every speculation of my own ; and with a pro- 
found reverence for the wisdom of our ancestors, who have 
left us the inheritance of so happy a constitution, and so 
flourishing an empire, and what is a thousand times more 3c 
valuable, the treasury of the maxims and principles which 
formed the one, and obtained the other. 



•7? 



128 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

*7 /„ During the reigns of the kings of Spain of the Austrian 
family, whenever they were at a loss in the Spanish councils, 
it was common for their statesmen to say, that they ought 
to consult the genius of Philip the Second. The genius of 

5 Philip the Second might mislead them ; and the issue of 
their affairs showed, that they had not chosen the most 
perfect standard. But, Sir, I am sure that I shall not be 
misled, when, in a case of constitutional difficulty, I consult 
the genius of the English constitution. Consulting at that 

10 oracle (it was with all due humility and piety) I found four 
capital examples in a similar case before me ; those of 
Ireland, Wales, Chester, and Durham. 

Ireland, before the Enghsh conquest, though never gov- 
erned by a despotic power, had no parliament. How far 

15 the English parliament itself was at that time modelled ac- 
cording to the present form, is disputed among antiquarians.-^ 
But we have all the reason in the world to be assured that 
a form of parhament, such as England then enjoyed, she 
instantly communicated to Ireland ; and we are equally sure 

20 that almost every successive improvement in constitutional 
liberty, as fast as it was made here, was transmitted thither. 
The feudal baronage, and the feudal knighthood, the roots 
of our primitive constitution, were early transplanted into 
that soil ; and grew and flourished there. Magna Charta, 

25 if it did not give us originally the House of Commons, gave 
us at least a House of Commons of weight and consequence. 
But your ancestors did not churlishly sit down alone to the 
feast of Magna Charta. Ireland was made immediately a 
partaker. This benefit of English laws and liberties, I con- 
fess, was not at first extended to all Ireland. Mark the 
consequence. English authority and English liberties had 



30 



i 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 129 

exactly the same boundaries. Your standard could never 
be advanced an inch before your privileges.^ Sir John 
Davis shows beyond a doubt, that the refusal of a general 
communication of these rights was the true cause why 
Ireland was five hundred years in subduing ; and after the 5 
vain projects of a military government, attempted in the 
reign of Queen Elizabeth, it was soon discovered, that 
nothing could make that country English, in civility and 
allegiance, but your laws and your forms of legislature. It 
was not English arms, but the English constitution, that 10 
conquered Ireland. From that time, Ireland has ever had 
a general parliament, as she had before a partial parliament. 
You changed the people ; you altered the rehgion ; but you 
never touched the form or the vital substance of free gov- 
ernment in that kingdom. You deposed kings ; you re- 15 
stored them ; you altered the succession to theirs, as well as 
to your own crown ; but you never altered their consti- 
tution ; the principle of which was respected by usurpation ; 
restored with the restoration of monarchy, and established, 
I trust, for ever, by the glorious Revolution. This has 20 
made Ireland the great and flourishing kingdom that it is ; 
and from a disgrace and a burthen intolerable to this nation, 
has rendered her a principal part of our strength and orna- 
ment. This country cannot be said to have ever formally 
taxed her. The irregular things done in the confusion of 25 
mighty troubles, and on the hinge of great revolutions, even 
if all were done that is said to have been done, form no 
example. If they have any effect in argument, they make 
an exception to prove the rule. None of your own liberties 
could stand a moment if the casual deviations from them, 30 
at such times, were suffered to be used as proofs of their 



130 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA, 

nullity. By the lucrative amount of such casual breaches 
in the constitution, judge what the stated and fixed rule of 
supply has been in that kingdom. Your Irish pensioners 
would starve if they had no other fund to live on than taxes 

5 granted by English authority. Turn your eyes to those 

popular grants from whence all your great supplies are 

come ; and learn to respect that only source of public 

wealth in the British empire. 

'^ % My next example is Wales.^ This country was said to be 

10 reduced by Henry the Third. It was said more truly to be 
so by Edward the First. But though then conquered, it was 
not looked upon as any part of the realm of England. Its 
old constitution, whatever that might have been, was de- 
stroyed"; and no good one was substituted in its place. 

15 The care of that tract was put into the hands of lords 
marchers — a form of government of a very singular kind ; 
a strange heterogeneous monster, something between hos- 
tility and government ; perhaps it has a sort of resemblance, 
according to the modes of those times, to that of comman- 

20 der-in-chief at present, to whom all civil power is granted 
as secondary. The manners of the Welsh nation followed 
the genius of the government ; the people were ferocious, 
restive, savage, and uncultivated ; sometimes composed, 
never pacified. Wales, within itself, was in perpetual dis- 

25 order; and it kept the frontier of England in perpetual 
alarm. Benefits from it to the state there were none. 
Wales was only known to England by incursion and in- 
vasion. 
Sir, during that state of things, parliament was not idle. 

30 They attempted to subdue the fierce spirit of the Welsh by 
all sorts of rigorous laws. They prohibited by statute the 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 131 

sending all sorts of arms into Wales, as you prohibit by pro- 
clamation (with something more of doubt in the legality) 
the sending arms to America. They disarmed the Welsh by 
statute, as you attempted (but still with more question on 
the legality) to disarm New England by an instruction. 5 
They made an act to drag offenders from Wales into England 
for trial, as you have done (but with more hardship) with 
regard to America. By another act, where one of the par- 
ties was an Englishman, they ordained, that his trial should 
be always by English. They made acts to restrain trade, as 10 
you do ; and they prevented the Welsh from the use of fairs 
and markets, as you do the Americans from fisheries and 
foreign ports. In short, when the statute book was not quite 
so much swelled as it is now, you find no less than fifteen 
acts of penal regulation on the subject of Wales. 15 

M Here we rub our hands — A fine body of precedents for 
the authority of parhament and the use of it ! — I admit it 
fully ; and pray add likewise to these precedents, that all the 
while, Wales rid this kingdom like an incubus ; that it was 
an unprofitable and oppressive burthen ; and that an English- 20 
man travelling in that country could not go six yards from 
the high road without being murdered. 
Q\ The march of the human mind is slow. Sir, it was not, 
until after two hundred years, discovered, that, by an eternal 
law, Providence had decreed vexation to violence, and pOv- 25 
erty to rapine. Your ancestors did however at length open 
their eyes to the ill husbandry of injustice. They found 
that the tyranny of a free people could of all tyrannies the 
least be endured ; and that laws made against a whole nation 
were not the most effectual methods for securing its obedi- 30 
ence. Accordingly, in the twenty-seventh year of Henry 



132 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

VIII. the course was entirely altered. With a preamble 
stating the entire and perfect rights of the crown of England, 
it gave to the Welsh all the rights and privileges of English 
subjects. A poHtical order was established; the miUtary 

5 power gave way to the civil ; the marches were turned into 
counties. But that a nation should have a right to English 
liberties, and yet no share at all in the fundamental security 
of these hberties — the grant of their own property — seemed 
a thing so incongruous, that, eight years after, that is, in the 

10 thirty-fifth of that reign, a complete and not ill-proportioned 
representation by counties and boroughs was bestowed upon 
Wales, by act of parliament.^ From that moment, as by a 
charm, the tumults subsided, obedience was restored, peace, 
order, and civilization followed in the train of liberty. — When 

15 the day-star of the English constitution had arisen in their 
hearts, all was harmony within and without — 

— Simul alba naiitis 

Stella refidsit, 
Dejiiiit saxis agitatus humor ; 
20 Concidunt venti, fugiuntque nubeSy 

Et minax {quod sic voluere) ponto 

Unda recumbit'^. 

^ ()' The very same year the county palatine of Chester re- 
ceived the same rehef from its oppressions, and the same 

25 remedy to its disorders. Before this time Chester was little 
less distempered than Wales. The inhabitants, without rights 
themselves, were the fittest to destroy the rights of others ; 
and from thence Richard II. drew the standing army of 
archers, with which for a time he oppressed England. The 

30 people of Chester applied to parliament in a petition penned 
as I shall read to you : 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA, 133 

V "To the king our sovereign lord, in most humble wise 
shown unto your excellent Majesty, the inhabitants of your 
Grace's county palatine of Chester; That where the said 
county palatine of Chester is and hath been always hitherto 
exempt, excluded and separated out and from your high 5 
court of parliament, to have any knights and burgesses 
within the said court ; by reason whereof the said inhabi- 
tants have hitherto sustained manifold disherisons, losses, and 
damages, as well in their lands, goods, and bodies, as in the 
good, civil, and politic governance and maintenance of the 10 
commonwealth of their said country: (2) And forasmuch 
as the said inhabitants have always hitherto been bound by 
the acts and statutes made and ordained by your said High- 
ness, and your most noble progenitors, by authority of the 
said court, as far forth as other counties, cities, and bor- 15 
oughs have been, that have had their knights and burgesses 
within your said court of parliament, and yet have had 
neither knight ne burgess there for the said county palatine ; 
the said inhabitants, for lack thereof, have been oftentimes 
touched and grieved with acts and statutes made within the 20 
said court, as well derogatory unto the most ancient juris- 
dictions, liberties, and privileges of your said county pala- 
tine, as prejudicial unto the commonwealth, quietness, rest, 
and peace of your Grace's most bounden subjects inhabiting 
within the same." 25 

/ What did parliament with this audacious address? — Re- 
ject it as a libel? Treat it as an affront to government? 
Spurn it as a derogation from the rights of legislature? 
Did they toss it over the table ? Did they burn it by the 
hands of the common hangman? They took the petition 30 
of grievance, all rugged as it was, without softening or 



134 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 



temperament, unpurged of the original bitterness and indig- 
nation of complaint ; they made it the very preamble to 
their act of redress ; and consecrated its principle to all 
ages in the sanctuary of legislation. 

Here is my third example. It was attended with the 
success of the two former. Chester, civilized as well as 
Wales, has demonstrated that freedom, and not servitude, is 
the cure of anarchy ; as religion, and not atheism, is the 
true remedy for superstition. Sir, this pattern of Chester 
was followed in the reign of Charles II. with regard to the 
county palatine of Durham, which is my fourth example. 
This county had long lain out of the pale of free legislation. 
So scrupulously was the example of Chester followed, that 
the style of the preamble is nearly the same with that of the 
Chester act ; and, without affecting the abstract extent of 
the authority of parliament, it recognises^ the equity of not 
suffering any considerable district, in which the British sub- 
jects may act as a body, to be taxed without their own voice 
in the grant.^ 

Now if the doctrines of policy contained in these pream- 
bles, and the force of these examples in the acts of parlia- 
ment, avail anything, what can be said against applying 
them with regard to America? Are not the people of 
America as much Englishmen as the Welsh? The pream- 
ble of the act of Henry VIII. says, the Welsh speak a lan- 
guage no way resembling that of his Majesty's English 
subjects. Are the Americans not as numerous? If we may 
trust the learned and accurate Judge Barrington's account 
of North Wales, and take that as a standard to measure the 
rest, there is no comparison. The people cannot amount to 
above 200,000 ; not a tenth part of the number in the colo- 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA, 135 

nies. Is America in rebellion ? Wales was hardly ever free 
from it. Have you attempted to govern America by penal 
statutes? You made fifteen for Wales. But your legisla- 
tive authority is perfect with regard to America \ was it less 
perfect in Wales, Chester, and Durham? But America is 5 
virtually represented. What ! does the electric force of vir- 
tual representation more easily pass over the Atlantic, than 
pervade Wales, which lies in your neighbourhood ; or than 
Chester and Durham, surrounded by abundance of repre- 
sentation that is actual and palpable ? But, Sir, your ances- 10 
tors thought this sort of virtual representation, however 
ample, to be totally insufficient for the freedom of the in- 
habitants of territories that are so near, and comparatively 
so inconsiderable. How then can I think it sufficient for 
those which are infinitely greater, and infinitely more 15 
remote? ^ 

cS You will now, Sir, perhaps imagine, that I am on the point 
^of proposing to you a scheme for a representation of the 
colonies in parliament. Perhaps I might be inclined to 
entertain some such thought ; but a great flood stops me in 20 
my course. Opposint natu7-a — I cannot remove the eternal 
barriers of the creation. The thing, in that mode, I do not 
know to be possible. As I meddle with no theory, I do not 
absolutely assert the impracticability of such a representa- 
tion. But I do not see my way to it ; and those who have 25 
been more confident have not been more successful. How- 
ever, the arm of public benevolence is not shortened ; and 
there are often several means to the same end. What 
nature has disjoined in one way, wisdom may unite in an- 
other. When we cannot give the benefit as we would wish, 30 
let us not refuse it altogether. If we cannot give the prin- ^ 



136 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

cipal, let us find a substitute. But how ? Where ? What 
substitute ? 
^^ Fortunately I am not obliged for the ways and means of 
this substitute to tax my own unproductive invention. I am 

5 not even obliged to go to the rich treasury of the fertile 
framers of imaginary commonwealths; not to the Republic 
of Plato ; not to the Utopia of More ; not to the Oceana of 
Harrington. It is before me — it is at my feet, ajid (he rude 
swain treads daily on it with his clouted shoon. I only wish 

10 you to recognise, for the theory, the ancient constitutional 
policy of this kingdom with regard to representation, as that 
policy has been declared in acts of parliament ; and, as to 
the practice, to return to that mode which an uniform experi- 
ence has marked out to you, as best ; and in which you walked 

15 with security, advantage, and honour, until the year 1763. 
Q I -. My resolutions therefore mean to estaf^Iish the equity and 
^1 i J^ justice of a taxation of America, by gi-ant, and not by inipo- 

^ sition. To mark the legal competency of the colony assem- 
blies for the support of their government in peace, and for 

20 public aids in time of war. To acknowledge that this legal 

competency has had a dutiful afid beneficial exercise ; and 

that experience has shown the benefit of tJieir grants, and the 

futility of pai'liainentary taxation as a method of supply. 

^js These solid truths compose six fundamental propositions. 

25 There are three more resolutions corollary to these. If you 
admit the first set, you can hardly reject the others. But if 
you admit the first, I shall be far from solicitous whether you 
accept or refuse the last. I think these six massive pillars 
will be of strength sufficient to support the temple of British 

30 concord. I have no more doubt than I entertain of my ex- 
istence, that, if you admitted these, you would command an 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 137 

immediate peace ; and, with but tolerable future manage- 
ment, a lasting obedience in America. I am not arrogant in 
this confident assurance. The propositions are all mere mat- 
ters of fact ; and if they are such facts as draw irresistible 
conclusions even in the stating, this is the power of truth, 5 
and not any management of mine. 
7^ Sir, I shall open the whole plan to you, together with 
such observations on the motions as may tend to illustrate 
them where they may want explanation. The first is a reso- 
lution — " That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain 10 
in North America, consisting of fourteen separate govern- 
ments, and containing two millions and upwards of free in- 
habitants, have not had the liberty and privilege of electing 
and sending any knights and burgesses, or others, to repre- 
sent them in the high court of parliament." — This is a plain 15 
matter of fact, nee ^ssary to be laid down, and (excepting the 
description) it is laid down in the language of the constitu- 
tion ; it is taken nearly verbatim from acts of parhament. 

^^ The second is like unto the first — " That the said colonies 

and plantations have been liable to, and bounden by, several 20 
subsidies, payments, rates, and taxes, given and granted by 
parliament, though the said colonies and plantations have 
not their knights and burgesses, in the said high court of 
parliament, of their own election, to represent the condition 
of their country ; by lack whereof they have been oftentimes 25 
touched and grieved by subsidies given, granted, and assented 
to, in the said court, in a manner prejudicial to the common- 
wealth, quietness, rest, and peace of the subjects inhabiting 
.•within the same." y' 

[' *) Is this description too hot, or too cold, too strong, or too 30 
weak ? Does it arrogate too much to the supreme legisla- 



138 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

ture? Does it lean too much to the claims of the people? 
If it runs into any of these errors, the fault is not mine. It 
is the language of your own ancient acts of parliament. 

Non metis hie sernio, sed qua prcecepit Ofellus, 
5 Rustieiis, abnormis sapiens^ 

It is the genuine produce of the ancient, rustic, manly, home- 
bred sense of this country. — I did not dare to rub off a par- 
ticle of the venerable rust that rather adorns and preserves, 
than destroys, the metal. It would be a profanation to 

10 touch with a tool the stones which construct the sacred altar 
of peace.^ I would not violate with modern polish the in- 
genuous and noble roughness of these truly constitutional 
materials. Above all things, I was resolved not to be guilty 
of tampering : the odious vice of restless and unstable minds. 

15 I put my foot in the tracks of our forefathers, where I can 
neither wander nor stumble. Determining to fix articles of 
peace, I was resolved not to be wise beyond what was writ- 
ten;^ I was resolved to use nothing else than the form of 
sound words ;'' to let others abound in their own sense ; and 

20 carefully to abstain from all expressions of my own. What 
the law has said, I say. In all things else I am silent. I 
have no organ but for her words. This, if it be not ingen- 
ious, I am sure is safe. 

There are indeed words expressive of grievance in this 

25 second resolution, which those who are resolved always to 
be in the right will deny to contain matter of fact, as apphed 
to the present case ; although parliament thought them true, 
with regard to the counties of Chester and Durham. They 
will deny that the Americans were ever " touched and 

30 grieved " with the taxes. If they consider nothing in taxes 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 139 

but their weight as pecuniary impositions, there might be 
some pretence for this denial. But men may be sorely 
touched and deeply grieved in their privileges, as well as in 
their purses. Men may lose little in property by the act 
which takes away all their freedom. When a man is robbed 5 
of a trifle on the highway, it is not the two-pence lost that 
constitutes the capital outrage. This is not confined to 
privileges. Even ancient indulgences withdrawn, without 
offence on the part of those who enjoyed such favours, oper- 
ate as grievances. But were the Americans then not touched 10 
and grieved by the taxes, in some measure, merely as. taxes? 
If so, why were they almost all either wholly repealed or ex- 
ceedingly reduced? Were they not touched and grieved 
even by the regulating duties of the sixth of George II.? 
Else why were the duties first reduced to one-third in 1764, 15 
and afterwards to a third of that third in the year 1766? 
Were they not touched and grieved by the stamp act? I 
shall say they were, until that tax is revived. Were they not 
touched and grieved by the duties of 1767, which were hke- 
wise repealed, and which Lord Hillsborough tells you (for 20 
the ministry) were laid contrary to the true principle of 
commerce ? Is not the assurance given by that noble per- 
son to the colonies of a resolution to lay no more taxes on 
them, an admission that taxes would touch and grieve them ? 
Is not the resolution of the noble lord in the blue riband, 25 
now standing on your journals, the strongest of all proofs 
that parliamentary subsidies really touched and grieved 
them? Else why all these changes, modifications, repeals, 
assurances, and resolutions? 

The next proposition is — "That, from the distance of 30 
the said colonies, and from other circumstances, no method 



140 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

hath hitherto been devised for procuring a representation in 
parhament for the said colonies." This is an assertion of a 
fact. I go no further on the paper ; though, in my private 
judgment, an useful representation is impossible ; I am sure 

5 it is not desired by them ; nor ought it perhaps by us ; but 
I abstain from opinions. 
/^^ The fourth resolution is — *' That each of the said colo- 
nies hath within itself a body, chosen in part, or in the 
whole, by the freemen, freeholders, or other free inhabitants 

lo thereof, commonly called the General Assembly, or General 
Court ; with powers legally to raise, levy, and assess, accord- 
ing to the several usage of such colonies, duties and taxes 
towards defraying all sorts of public services." 
m ] This competence in the colony assemblies is certain. It 
' 15 is proved by the whole tenor of their acts of supply in all the 
assemblies, in which the constant style of granting is, " an 
aid to his Majesty"; and acts granting to the crown have 
regularly for near a century passed the public offices without 
dispute. Those who have been pleased paradoxically to 

20 deny this right, holding that none but the British parliament 
can grant to the crown, are wished to look to what is done, 
not only in the colonies, but in Ireland, in one uniform un- 
broken tenor every session. Sir, I am surprised that this 
doctrine should come from some of the law servants of the 

25 crown. I say, that if the crown could be responsible, his 
Majesty — but certainly the ministers, and even these law 
officers themselves, through whose hands the acts pass bien- 
nially in Ireland, or annually in the colonies, are in an ha- 
bitual course of committing impeachable offences. What 

30 habitual offenders have been all presidents of the council, 
all secretaries of state, all first lords of trade, all attornies 



r' 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 141 

and all solicitors general ! However, they are safe ; as no 
one impeaches them ; and there is no ground of charge 
against them, except in their own unfounded theories. 

J^ The fifth resolution is also a resolution of fact — " That 
the said general assemblies, general courts, or other bodies 5 
legally quahfied as aforesaid, have at sundry times freely 
granted several large subsidies and pubUc aids for his 
Majesty's service, according to their abilities, when required 
thereto by letter from one of his Majesty's principal secre- 
taries of state ; and that their right to grant the same, and 10 
their cheerfulness and sufficiency in the said grants, have 
been at sundry times acknowledged by parliament." To 
say nothing of their great expenses in the Indian wars ; and 
not to take their exertion in foreign ones, so high as the sup- 
plies in the year 1695; not to go back to their pubHc con- 15 
tributions in the year 17 10; I shall begin to travel only 
where the journals give me light ; resolving to deal in noth- 
ing but fact, authenticated by parliamentary record ; and to 
build myself wholly on that solid basis. 

; ^ ^ On the 4th of April, 1 748, a committee of this House 20 
came to the following resolution : ^ 

^'Resolved — That it is the opinion of this committee. 
That it is just and reasonable that the several provinces 
and colonies of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Con- 
necticut, and Rhode Island, be reimbursed the expenses 25 
they have been at in taking and securing to the crown 
of Great Britain the island of Cape Breton and its de- 
pendencies." 

These expenses were immense for such colonies. They 
were above ^200,000 sterling; money first raised and 30 
advanced on their public credit. 



142 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

On the 28th of January, 1756, a message from the king 
came to us, to this effect^ — " His Majesty, being sensible of 
the zeal and vigour with which his faithful subjects of certain 
colonies in North America have exerted themselves in defence 

5 of his Majesty's just rights and possessions, recommends it to 
this House to take the same into their consideration, and to 
enable his Majesty to give them such assistance as may be a 
proper reivard and e7ico'drage7ne7ity 

On the 3rd of February, 1756, the House came to a suit- 

10 able resolution, expressed in words nearly the same as those 
of the message : ^ but with the further addition, that the 
money then voted was as an encou7'agement to the colonies 
to exert themselves with vigour. It will not be necessary to 
go through all the testimonies which your own records have 

15 given to the truth of my resolutions, I will only refer you to 
the places in the journals : 

Vol. xxvit. — 1 6th and 19th May, 1757. 

Vol. xxviii. — June 1st, 1758 — April 26th and 30th, 1759 — March 
26th and 31st, and April 28th, 1760 — Jan. 9th and 
20 loth, 1 761. 

Vol. xxix. — Jan. 22nd and 26th, 1762 — March 14th and 17th, 1763. 

Sir, here is the repeated acknowledgment of parliament, 
that the colonies not only gave, but gave to satiety. This 
nation has formerly acknowledged two things ; first, that the 

25 colonies had gone beyond their abilities, parliament having 
thought it necessary to reimburse them ; secondly, that they 
had acted legally and laudably in their grants of money, 
and their maintenance of troops, since the compensation is 
expressly given as reward and encouragement.^ Reward is 

30 not bestowed for acts that are unlawful ; and encouragement 
is not held out to things that deserve reprehension. My 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 143 

resolution therefore does nothing more than collect into one 
proposition, what is scattered through your journals. I give 
you nothing but your own ; and you cannot refuse in the 
gross, what you have so often acknowledged in detail. The 
admission of this, which will be so honourable ^to them and 5 
to you, will, indeed, be mortal to all the miserable stories, 
by which the passions of the misguided people have been 
engaged in an unhappy system./ The people heard, indeed, 
from the beginning of these disputes, one thing continually 
dinned in their ears, that reason and justice demanded, that 10 
the Americans, who paid no taxes, should be compelled to 
contribute. How did that fact, of their paying nothing, 
stand, when the taxing system began? When Mr. Grenville 
began to form his system of American revenue, he stated in 
this House, that the colonies were then in debt two miUion 15 
six hundred thousand pounds sterling money; and was of 
opinion they would discharge that debt in four years. On 
this state, those untaxed people were actually subject to the 
payment of taxes to the amount of six hundred and fifty 
thousand a year. In fact, however, Mr. Grenville was mis- 20 
taken. The funds given for sinking the debt did not prove 
quite so ample as both the colonies and he expected. The 
calculation was too sanguine ; the reduction was not com- 
pleted till some years after, and at different times in different 
colonies. However, the taxes after the war continued too 25 
great to bear any addition, with prudence or propriety ; and 
when the burthens imposed in consequence of former requi- 
sitions were discharged, our tone became too high to resort 
again to requisition. No colony, since that time, ever has 
had any requisition whatsoever made to it. 30 

We see the sense of the crown, and the sense of parlia- 



144 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA, 

ment, on the productive nature of a revenue by grant. Now 
search the same journals for the produce of the revenue by 
ifnposition — Where is it? — let us know the volume and the 
page — what is the gross, what is the net produce? — to 

5 what service is it appUed ? — how have you appropriated its 
surplus? — What, can none of the many skilful index-makers 
that we are now employing, find any trace of it ? — Well, let 
them and that rest together. — But are the journals, which 
say nothing of the revenue, as silent on the discontent? — 

lo Oh, no ! a child may find it. It is the melancholy burthen 
and blot of every page. 

I think then I am, from those journals, justified in the 
sixth and last resolution, which is — " That it hath been 
found by experience, that the manner of granting the said 

15 supplies and aids, by the said general assemblies, hath been 
more agreeable to the said colonies, and more beneficial, 
and conducive to the public service, than the mode of 
giving and granting aids in parliament, to be raised and 
paid in the said colonies." This makes the whole of the 

20 fundamental part of the plan. The conclusion is irresistible. 
You cannot say, that you were driven by any necessity to an 
exercise of the utmost rights of legislature. You cannot 
assert, that you took on yourselves the task of imposing 
colony taxes, from the want of another legal body, that is 

25 competent to the purpose of supplying the exigences of the 
state without wounding the prejudices of the people. Nei- 
ther is it true that the body so qualified, and having that 
competence, had neglected the duty. 

The question now, on all this accumulated matter, is ; — 

30 whether you will choose to abide by a profitable experience, 
or a mischievous theory ; whether you choose to build on 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 145 

imagination, or fact ; whether you prefer enjoyment, or 
hope; satisfaction in your subjects, or discontent? 

If these propositions are accepted, everything which has 
been made to enforce a contrary system, must, I take it for 
granted, fall along with it. On that ground, I have drawn 5 
the following resolution, which, when it comes to be moved, 
will naturally be divided in a proper manner : ^' That it may 
be proper to repeal an act, made in the seventh year of the 
reign of his present Majesty, intituled. An act for granting 
certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in 10 
America ; for allowing a drawback of the duties of customs 
upon the exportation from this kingdom, of coffee and co- 
coanuts of the produce of the said colonies or plantations ; 
for discontinuing the drawbacks payable on China earthen- 
ware exported to America; and for more effectually pre- 15 
venting the clandestine running of goods in the said colonies 
and plantations. — And that it may be proper to repeal an 
act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present 
Majesty, intituled. An act to discontinue, in such manner, 
and for such time, as are therein mentioned, the landing 20 
and discharging, lading or shipping, of goods, wares, and 
merchandise, at the town and within the harbour of Boston, 
in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America. — 
And that it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the 
fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 25 
An act for the impartial administration of justice, in the 
cases of persons questioned for any acts done by them, in 
the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and 
tumults, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New 
England. — And that it maybe proper to repeal an act, 30 
made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present 



146 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

Majesty, intituled, An act for the better regulating the gov- 
ernment of the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New 
England. — And, also, that it may be proper to explain and 
amend an act, made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of 

5 King Henry the Eighth, intituled. An act for the trial of 
treasons committed out of the king's dominions." 

I wish, Sir, to repeal the Boston Port Bill, because (inde- 
pendently of the dangerous precedent of suspending the 
rights of the subject during the king's pleasure) it was 

10 passed, as I apprehend, with less regularity, and on more 
partial principles, than it ought. The corporation of Boston 
was not heard before it was condemned. Other towns, full 
as guilty as she was, have not had their ports blocked up. 
Even the restraining bill of the present session does not go 

15 to the length of the Boston Port Act. The same ideas of 
prudence, which induced you not to extend equal punish- 
ment to equal guilt, even when you were punishing, induced 
me, who mean not to chastise, but to reconcile, to be satis- 
fied with the punishment already partially inflicted. 

20 ' Ideas of prudence and accommodation to circumstances, 
prevent you from taking away the charters of Connecticut 
and Rhode Island, as you have taken away that of Massa- 
chusetts colony, though the crown has far less power in the 
two former provinces than it enjoyed in the latter; and 

25 though the abuses have been full as great, and as flagrant, 
in the exempted as in the punished. The same reasons of 
prudence and accommodation have weight with me in 
restoring the charter of Massachusetts Bay. Besides, Sir, 
the act which changes the charter of Massachusetts is in 

30 many particulars so exceptionable, that if I did not wish 
absolutely to repeal, I would by all means desire to alter it ; 



/^ 



ON CONCILIA TION WITH AMERICA. 147 

as several of its provisions tend to the subversion of all pub- 
lic and private justice. Such, among others, is the power 
in the governor to change the sheriff at his pleasure ; and to 
make a new returning officer for every special cause. It is 
shameful to behold such a regulation standing among Eng- 5 
lish laws. 

The act for bringing persons accused of committing mur- 
der under the orders of government to England for trial is 
but temporary. That act has calculated the probable dura- 
tion of our quarrel with the colonies ; and is accommodated 10 
to that supposed duration. I would hasten the happy mo- 
ment of reconcihation ; and therefore must, on my princi- 
ple, get rid of that most justly obnoxious act. 

The act of Henry the Eighth, for the trial of treasons, I 
do not mean to take away, but to confine it to its proper 15 
bounds and original intention ; to make it expressly for trial 
of treasons (and the greatest treasons may be committed) 
in places where the jurisdiction of the crown does not ex- 
tend. 

Having guarded the privileges of local legislature, I would 20 
next secure to the colonies a fair and unbiassed judicature ; 
for which purpose. Sir, I propose the following resolution : 
" That, from the time when the general assembly or general 
court of any colony or plantation in North America, shall 
have appointed by act of assembly, duly confirmed, a settled 25 
salary to the offices of the chief justice and other judges of 
the superior court, it may be proper that the said chief jus- 
tice and other judges of the superior courts of such colony, 
shall hold his and their office and offices during their good 
behaviour; and shall not be removed therefrom, but when 30 
the said removal shall be adjudged by his Majesty in coun- 



148 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

cil, upon a hearing on complaint from the general assembly, 
or on a complaint from the governor, or council, or the 
house of representatives severally, or of the colony in which 
the said chief justice and other judges have exercised the 

5 said offices." 

The next resolution relates to the courts of admiralty. 
It is this : — " That it may be proper to regulate the 
courts of admiralty, or vice-admiralty, authorized by the 
fifteenth chapter of the fourth of George the Third, in such 

10 a manner as to make the same more commodious to those 
who sue, or are sued, in the said courts, and to provide for 
the more decent maintenance of the judges in the same.'* 

These courts I do not wish to take away; they are in 
themselves proper estabhshments. This court is one of the 

15 capital securities of the act of navigation. The extent of its 
jurisdiction, indeed, has been increased ; but this is alto- 
gether as proper, and is indeed on many accounts more eli- 
gible, where new powers were wanted, than a court abso- 
lutely new. But courts incommodiously situated, in effect, 

20 deny justice ; and a court, partaking in the fruits of its own 
condemnation, is a robber. The congress complain, and 
complain justly, of this grievance.^ 

These are the three consequential propositions. I have 
thought of two or three more ; but they come rather too 

25 near detail, and to the province of executive government ; 
which I wish parliament always to superintend, never to 
assume. If the first six are granted, congruity will carry 
the latter three. If not, the things that remain unrepealed 
will be, I hope, rather unseemly encumbrances on the build- 

30 ing, than very materially detrimental to its strength and 
stability. 



\ 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 149 

Here, Sir, I should close ; but I plainly perceive some ob- 
jections remain, which I ought, if possible, to remove. The 
first will be, that, in resorting to the doctrine of our ancestors, 
as contained in the preamble to the Chester act, I prove too 
much ; that the grievance from a want of representation, 5 
stated in that preamble, goes to the whole of legislation as 
well as to taxation. And that the colonies, grounding them- 
selves upon that doctrine, will apply it to all parts of legisla- 
tive authority. 

To this objection, with all possible deference and humility, 10 
and wishing as little as any man living to impair the small- 
est particle of our supreme authority, I answer, that the 
words are the words of parliament, and not mine ; and, that 
all false and inconclusive inferences, drawn from them, are 
not mine ; for I heartily disclaim any such inference. I have 15 
chosen the words of an act of parliament, which Mr. Gren- 
ville, surely a tolerably zealous and very judicious advocate 
for the sovereignty of parliament, formerly moved to have 
read at your table in confirmation of his tenets. It is true, 
that Lord Chatham considered these preambles as declaring 20 
strongly in favour of his opinions. He was a no less power- 
ful advocate for the privileges of the Americans. Ought I 
not from hence to presume, that these preambles are as 
favourable as possible to both, when properly understood ; 
favourable both to the rights of parliament, and to the priv- 25 
ileges of the dependencies of this crown? But, Sir, the ob- 
ject of grievance in my resolution I have not taken from the 
Chester, but from the Durham act, which confines the hard- 
ship of want of representation to the case of subsidies ; and 
which therefore falls in exactly with the case of the colonies. 30 
But whether the unrepresented counties were de jure or de 



150 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

facto, bound, the preambles do not accurately distinguish ; 
nor indeed was it necessary ; for, whether dejiire or de facto, 
the legislature thought the exercise of the power of taxing, 
as of right, or as of fact without right, equally a grievance, 

5 and equally oppressive. 

I do not know that the colonies have, in any general way, 
or in any cool hour, gone much beyond the demand of im- 
munity in relation to taxes. It is not fair to judge of the 
temper or dispositions of any man, or any set of men, when 

10 they are composed and at rest, from their conduct, or their 
expressions, in a state of disturbance and irritation. It is 
besides a very great mistake to imagine, that mankind follow 
up practically any speculative principle, either of govern- 
ment or of freedom, as far as it will go in argument and 

15 logical illation. We Englishmen stop very short of the 
principles upon which we support any given part of our con- 
stitution ; or even the whole of it together. I could easily, 
if I had not already tired you, give you very striking and- 
convincing instances of it. This is nothing but what is 

20 natural and proper. All government, indeed every human 
benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, 
is founded on compromise and barter. We balance incon- 
veniences ; we give and take ; we remit some rights that we 
may enjoy others ; and we choose rather to be happy citi- 

25 zens than subde disputants. As we must give away some 
natural liberty, to enjoy civil advantages ; so we must sacri- 
fice some civil liberties, for the advantages to be derived from 
the communion and fellowship of a great empire. But, in all 
fair dealings, the thing bought must bear some proportion to 

30 the purchase paid. None will barter away the immediate 
jewel of his soul.^ Though a great house is apt to make 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 151 

slaves haughty, yet it is purchasing a part of the artificial 
importance of a great empire too dear, to pay for it all es- 
sential rights, and all the intrinsic dignity of human nature. 
None of us who would not risk his life rather than fall under 
a government purely arbitrary. But although there are 5 
some amongst us who think our constitution wants many 
improvements, to make it a complete system of liberty ; per- 
haps none who are of that opinion would think it right to 
aim at such improvement, by disturbing his country, and 
risking everything that is dear to him. In every arduous 10 
enterprise, we consider what we are to lose as well as what 
we are to gain ; and the more and better stake of liberty 
every people possess, the less they will hazard in a vain at- 
tempt to make it more. These are the cords of man. Man 
acts fromade^uate motives relative to his interest ; and not 15 
on metaphysical speculations. Aristotle, the great master of 
reasoning, cautions us, and with great weight and propriety, 
against this species of delusive geometrical accuracy in moral 
arguments, as the most fallacious of all sophistry. 

The Americans will have no interest contrary to the gran- 20 
deur and glory of England, when they are not oppressed 
by the weight of it ; and they will rather be inchned to 
respect the acts of a superintending legislature, when they 
see them the acts of that power, which is itself the security, 
not the rival, of their secondary importance. In this assur- 25 
ance, my mind most perfectly acquiesces : and I confess, 
I feel not the least alarm from the discontents which are to 
arise from putting people at their ease ; nor do I apprehend 
the destruction of this empire, from giving, by an act of free 
grace and indulgence, to two millions of my fellow-citizens 30 
some share of those rights, upon which I have always been 
taught to value myself. 



)y 



152 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

It is said, indeed, that this power of granting, vested in 
American assemblies, would dissolve the unity of the empire ; 
which was preserved entire, although Wales, and Chester, 
and Durham were added to it. Truly, Mr. Speaker, I do 

5 not know what this unity means ; nor has it ever been heard 
of, that I know, in the constitutional policy of this country. 
The very idea of subordination of parts, excludes this notion 
of simple and undivided unity. England is the head ; but 
she is not the head and the members too. Ireland has ever 

lo had from the beginning a separate, but not an independent, 
legislature ; which, far from distracting, promoted the union 
of the whole. Everything was sweetly and harmoniously 
disposed through both islands for the conservation of English 
dominion, and the communication of English liberties. I do 

15 not see that the same principles might not be carried into 
twenty islands, and with the same good effect. This is my 
model with regard to America, as far as the internal circum- 
stances of the two countries are the same. I know no other 
unity of this empire, than I can draw from its example dur- 

20 ing these periods, when it seemed to my poor understanding 
more united than it is now, or than it is likely to be by the 
present methods. 

But since I speak of these methods, I recollect, Mr. 
Speaker, almost too late, that I promised, before I finished, 

25 to say something of the proposition of the noble lord ^ on the 
floor, which has been so lately received, and stands on your 
journals. I must be deeply concerned, whenever it is my 
misfortune to continue a difference with the majority of this 
House. But as the reasons for that difference are my 

30 apology for thus troubling you, suffer me to state them in 
a very few words. I shall compress them into as small a 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 153 

body as I possibly can, having already debated that matter 
at large, when the question was before the committee. 

First, then, I cannot admit that proposition of a ransom 
by auction; — because it is a mere project. It is a thing 
new; unheard of ; supported by no experience ; justified by 5 
r^' no analogy ; without example of our ancestors, or root in 
the constitution. 

It is neither regular parliamentary taxation, nor colony 
grant. Experwtentum in corpoi-e vili} is a good rule, which 
l^-:^^ will ever make me adverse to any trial of experiments on 10 
what is certainly the most valuable of all subjects, the peace 
of this empire. 

Secondly, it is an experiment which must be fatal in the 
end to our constitution. For what is it but a scheme for 
taxing the colonies in the antechamber of the noble lord and 15 
his successors ? To settle the quotas and proportions in this 
House, is clearly impossible. You, Sir, may flatter yourself 
you shall sit a state auctioneer, with your hammer in your 
hand, and knock down to each colony as it bids. But to 
settle (on the plan laid down by the noble lord) the true 20 
proportional payment for four or five and twenty govern- 
ments, according to the absolute and the relative wealth of 
each, and according to the British proportion of wealth and 
burthen, is a wild and chimerical notion. This new taxation 
must therefore come in by the back-door of the constitution.^ 25 
Each quota must be brought to this House ready formed ; 
you can neither add nor alter. You must register it. You 
can do nothing further. For on what grounds can you de- 
liberate either before or after the proposition ? You cannot 
hear the counsel for all these provinces, quarrelling each on 30 
its own quantity of payment, and its proportion to others. 



>^ 



154 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

If you should attempt it, the committee of provincial ways 
and means, or by whatever other name it will delight to be 
called, must swallow up all the time of parliament. 

Thirdly, it does not give satisfaction to the complaint of 

5 the colonies. They complain, that they are taxed without 
their consent ; you answer, that you will fix the sum at 
which they shall be taxed. That is, you give them the very 
grievance for the remedy. You tell them indeed, that you 
will leave the mode to themselves. I really beg pardon : it 

10 gives me pain to mention it ; but you must be sensible that 
you will not perform this part of the compact. For, sup- 
pose the colonies were to lay the duties, which furnished 
their contingent, upon the importation of your manufac- 
tures ; you know you would never suffer such a tax to be 

15 laid. You know, too, that you would not suffer many other 
modes of taxation. So that, when you come to explain 
yourself, it will be found, that you will neither leave to 
themselves the quantum nor the mode ; nor indeed any- 
thing. The whole is delusion from one end to the other. 

20 Fourthly, this method of ransom by auction, unless it be 
imiversally accepted, will plunge you into great and inex- 
tricable difficulties. In what year of our Lord are the pro- 
portions of payments to be settled ? To say nothing of the 
impossibility that colony agents should have general powers 

25 of taxing the colonies at their discretion ; consider, I implore 
you, that the communication by special messages, and orders 
between these agents and their constituents on each variation 
of the case, when the parties come to contend together, and 
to dispute on their relative proportions, will be a matter of 

30 delay, perplexity, and confusion that never can have an 
end. 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 155 

If all the colonies do not appear at the outcry, what is the 
condition of those assemblies, who offer by themselves or 
their agents, to tax themselves up to your ideas of their pro- 
portion ? The refractory colonies, who refuse all composi- 
tion, will remain taxed only to your old impositions, which, 5 
however grievous in principle, are trifling as to production. 
The obedient colonies in this scheme are heavily taxed ; the 
refractory remain unburthened. What will you do? Will 
you lay new and heavier taxes by parliament on the disobe- 
dient? Pray consider in what way you can do it. You are 10 
perfectly convinced, that, in the way of taxing, you can do 
nothing but at the ports. Now suppose it is Virginia that 
refuses to appear at your auction, while Maryland and North 
Carolina bid handsomely for their ransom, and are taxed to 
your quota, how will you put these colonies on a par? Will 15 
you tax the tobacco of Virginia? If you do, you give its 
death-wound to your English revenue at home, and to one 
of the very greatest articles of your own foreign trade. If 
you tax the import of that rebellious colony, what do you 
tax but your own manufactures, or the goods of some other 20 
obedient and already well- taxed colony? Who has said one 
word on this labyrinth of detail, which bewilders you more 
and more as you enter into it? Who has presented, who 
can present you with a clue, to lead you out of it ? I think. 
Sir, it is impossible, that you should not recollect that the 25 
colony bounds are so implicated in one another, (you know 
it by your other experiments in the bill for prohibiting the 
New England fishery,) that you can lay no possible restraints 
on almost any of them which may not be presently eluded, 
if you do not confound the innocent with the guilty, and 30 
burthen those whom, upon every principle, you ought to 



156 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

exonerate. He must be grossly ignorant of America, who 
thinks that, without falhng into this confusion of all rules of 
equity and policy, you can restrain any single colony, espe- 
cially Virginia and Maryland, the central and most impor- 

5 tant of them all. 

Let it also be considered, that, either in the present con- 
fusion you settle a permanent contingent, which will and 
■^ must be trifling ; and then you have no effectual revenue : 

or you change the quota at every exigency ; and then on 

lo every new repartition you will have a new quarrel. 

Reflect besides, that when you have fixed a quota for every 
colony, you have not provided for prompt and punctual pay- 
ment. Suppose one, two, five, ten years' arrears. You can- 
not issue a treasury extent against the failing colony.^ You 

15 must make new Boston Port Bills, new restraining laws, new 
acts for dragging men to England for trial. You must send 
out new fleets, new armies. All is to begin again. From 
this day forward the empire is never to know an hour's tran- 
quilhty. An intestine fire will be kept alive in the bowels of 

20 the colonies, which one time or other must consume this 
whole empire. I allow indeed that the empire of Germany 
raises her revenue and her troops by quotas and contin- 
gents ; but the revenue of the empire, and the army of the 
empire, is the worst revenue and the worst army in the 

25 world. 

Instead of a standing revenue, you will therefore have a 
perpetual quarrel. Indeed the noble lord, who proposed 
this project of a ransom by auction, seemed himself to be of 
that opinion. His project was rather designed for breaking 

30 the union of the colonies, than for establishing a revenue. 
He confessed, he apprehended that his proposal would not 



J^ 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 157 

be to their taste. I say, this scheme of disunion seems to be 
at the bottom of the project ; for I will not suspect that the 
noble lord meant nothing but merely to delude the nation 
by an airy phantom which he never intended to realize. 
But whatever his views may be ; as I propose the peace and 5 
union of the colonies as the very foundation of my plan, it 
cannot accord with one whose foundation is perpetual dis- 
cord. 

(Compare the two. This I offer to give you is plain and 
^/^simple. The other full of perplexed and intricate mazes. 10 
This is mild ; that harsh. This is found by experience 
effectual for its purposes ; the other is a new project. This 
is universal ; the other calculated for certain colonies only. 
This is immediate in its conciliatory operation ; the other 
remote, contingent, full of hazard. Mine is what becomes 15 
the dignity of a ruling people ; gratuitous, unconditional, 
and not held out as matter of bargain and sale. I have 
done my duty in proposing it to you. I have indeed tired 
you by a long discourse ; but this is the misfortune of those 
to whose influence nothing will be conceded, and who must 20 
win every inch of their ground by argument. You have 
heard me with goodness. May you decide with wisdom ! 
For my part, I feel my mind greatly disburthened by what I 
have done to-day. I have been the less fearful of trying 
your patience, because on this subject I mean to spare it 25 
altogether in future. I have this comfort, that in every 
stage of the American affairs, I have steadily opposed the 
measures that have produced the confusion, and may bring 
on the destruction, of this empire. I now go so far as to 
risk a proposal of my own. If I cannot give peace to my 30 
country, I give it to my conscience. 



158 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

But what (says the financier) is peace to us without 
money? Your plan gives us no revenue. No ! But it does 
— For it secures to the subject the power of REFUSAL ; 
the first of all revenues. Experience is a cheat, and fact a 

5 liar, if this power in the subject of proportioning his grant, 
or if not granting at all, has not been found the richest mine 
of revenue ever discovered by the skill or by the fortune of 
man. It does not indeed vote you ;£i52,75o: ii : 2|ths, 
nor any other paltry limited sum. — But it gives the strong 

10 box itself, the fund, the bank, from whence only revenues 
can arise amongst a people sensible of freedom : Posita 

luditur a7'ca}y Cannot you in England ; cannot you at this 

time ofday ; cannot you, a House of Commons, trust to the 
principle which has raised so mighty a revenue, and accu- 

15 mulated a debt of near 140 millions in this country? Is 
this principle to be true in England, and false everywhere 
else ? Is it not true in Ireland ? Has it not hitherto been 
true in the colonies? Why should you presume, that, in 
any country, a body duly constituted for any function, will 

20 neglect to perform its duty, and abdicate its trust? Such a 
presumption would go against all governments in all modes. 
But, in truth, this dread of penury of supply, from a free 
assembly, has no foundation in nature. For first observe, 
that, besides the desire which all men have naturally of sup- 

25 porting the honour of their own government, that sense of 
dignity, and that security to property, which ever attends 
freedom, has a tendency to increase the stock of the free 
community. Most may be taken where most is accumulated. 
And what is the soil or climate where experience has not 

.0 uniformly proved, that the voluntary flow of heaped-up plenty, 
bursting from the weight of its own rich luxuriance, has ever 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 159 

run with a more copious stream of revenue, than could be 
squeezed from the dry husks of oppressed indigence, by the 
straining of all the politic machinery in the world. 

Next we know, that parties must ever exist in a free coun- 
try. We know, too, that the emulations of such parties, 5 
their contradictions, their reciprocal necessities, their hopes, 
and their fears, must send them all in their turns to him that 
holds the balance of the state. The parties are the gamesters ; 
but government keeps the table, and is sure to be the winner 
in the end. When this game is played, I really think it is 10 
more to be feared that the people will be exhausted, than 
that government will not be supplied. Whereas, whatever 
is got by acts of absolute power ill obeyed, because odious, 
or by contracts ill kept-, because constrained, will be narrow, 
feeble, uncertain, and precarious. ^^ Ease would retract 15 
vows made in pain, as violent and void^ ^ 

I, for one, protest against compounding our demands : I 
declare against compounding for a poor limited sum, the 
immense, overgrowing, eternal debt," which is due to gen- 
erous government from protected freedom. And so may I 20 
speed in the great object I propose to you, as I think it 
would not only be an act of injustice, but would be the 
worst economy in the world, to compel the colonies to a 
sum certain, either in the way of ransom, or in the way of 
compulsory compact. 25 

But to clear up my ideas on this subject — a revenue from 
America transmitted hither — do not delude yourselves — 
you never can receive it — No, not a shilling. We have 
experience that from remote countries it is not to be ex- 
pected. If, when you attempted to extract revenue from 10 
Bengal, you were obliged to return in loan what you had 



L^' 



160 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

taken in imposition ; what can you expect from North 
America? For certainly, if ever there was a country quali- 
fied to produce wealth, it is India ; or an institution fit for 
the transmission, it is the East India Company. America 

5 has none of these aptitudes. If America gives you taxable 
objects, on which you lay your duties here, and gives you, 
at the same time, a surplus by a foreign sale of her com- 
modities to pay the duties on these objects, which you tax 
at home, she has performed her part to the British revenue. 

10 But with regard to her own internal establishments ; she 
may, I doubt not she will, contribute in moderation. I 
say in moderation ; for she ought not to be permitted to 
exhaust herself. She ought to be reserved to a war ; the 
weight of which, with the enemies that we are most likely 

15 to have, must be considerable in her quarter of the globe. 
There she may serve you, and serve you essentially. 

For that service, for all service, whether of revenue, trade, 
or empire, my trust is in her interest in the British consti- 
tution. My hold of the colonies is in the close affection 

20 which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from 
similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties, 
which, thougli light as air, are as strong as links of iron. 
Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights 
associated with your government ; — they will cling and 

25 grapple to you ; and no force under heaven will be of 
power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it be 
once understood, that your government may be one thing, 
and their privileges another ; that these two things may 
exist without any mutual relation ; the cement is ;^one ; the 

30 cohesion is loosened ; and everything hastens to decay and 
dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA, 161 

sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of 
liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, 
wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship 
freedom, they will turn theiff~faces towards you.^ The more 
they multiply, the more friends you will have ; the more 5 
ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their 
obedience. Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed 
that grows in every soil. They may have it from Spain, they 
may have it from Prussia. But, until you become lost to all 
feeling of your true interest and your natural dignity, free- 10 
dom they can have from none but you. This is the com- 
modity of price, of which you have the monopoly. This is 
the true act of navigation, which binds to you the commerce 
of the colonies, and through them secures to you the wealth 
of the world. Deny them this participation of freedom, and 15 
you break that sole bond, which originally made, and must 
still preserve, the unity of the empire. Do not entertain so 
weak an imagination, as that your registers and your bonds, 
your affidavits and your sufferances, your cockets and your 
clearances, are what form the great securities of your com- 20 
merce. Do not dream that your letters of office, and your 
instructions, and your suspending clauses, are the things 
that hold together the great contexture of the mysterious 
whole. These things do not make your government. Dead 
instruments, passive tools as they are, it is the spirit of the 25 
English communion that gives all their Kfe and efficacy to 
them. It is the spirit of the English constitution, which, in- 
fused through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds, unites, 
invigorates, vivifies every part of the empire, even down to 



the minutest member.^ 



30 



Is it not the same virtue which does everything for us 



162 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

here in England ? Do you imagine then, that it is the land 
tax act which raises your revenue? that it is the annual vote 
in the committee of supply which gives you your army? or 
that it is the mutiny bill which inspires it with bravery and 

5 discipline ? No ! surely no ! It is the love of the people ; 
it is their attachment to their government, from the sense of 
the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, 
which gives you your army and your navy, and infuses into 
both that liberal obedience, without which your army would 

10 be a base rabble, and your navy nothing but rotten timber. 
All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimeri- 
cal to the profane herd of those vulgar and mechanical poli- 
ticians, who have no place among us ; a sort of people who 
think that nothing exists but what is gross and material ; 

15 and who therefore, far from being qualified to be directors 
of the great movement of empire, are not fit to turn a wheel 
in the machine. But to men truly initiated and rightly 
taught, these ruling and master principles, which, in the 
opinion of such men as I have mentioned, have no substan- 

20 tial existence, are in truth everything, and all in all. Mag- 
nanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom ; and a 
great empire and little minds go ill together. If we are con- 
scious of our situation, and glow with zeal to fill our place 
as becomes our station and ourselves, we ought to auspicate 

25 all our public proceedings on America with the old warning 
of the church, Sursinn co7'da! ^ We ought to elevate our 
minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order of 
Providence has called us. By adverting to the dignity of 
this high calling, our ancestors have turned a savage wil- 

30 derness into a glorious empire ; and have made the most 
extensive, and the only honourable conquests, not by destroy- 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 163 

ing, but by promoting the wealth, the number, the happiness 
of the human race. Let us get an American revenue as we 
have got an American empire. Enghsh privileges have made 
it all that it is ; English privileges alone will make it all it 
can be. '5 

In full confidence of this unalterable truth, I now {quod %< ,T\'^J 
felix faitstiimque sit^) lay the first stone of the temple of 
peace ; and I move you, 
I "That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain in 

North America, consisting of fourteen separate governments, lo 
I and containing two millions and upwards of free inhabitants, 

( have not had the liberty and privilege of electing and send- 

I ing any knights and burgesses, or others, to represent them 

j in the high court of parliament." 



Upon this resolution, the previous question was put, and 
carried; — for the previous question 270, against it 78. 



I As the propositions were opened separately in the body 

of the speech, the reader perhaps may wish to see the whole 

j of them together, in the form in which they were moved for. 

{ ^^ Moved, That the colonies and plantations of Great 20 

Britain in North America, consisting of fourteen separate 
governments, and containing two millions and upwards of 
free inhabitants, have not had the liberty and privilege of 

i electing and sending any knights and burgesses, or others, 

to represent them in the high court of parliament." 25 

I " That the said colonies and plantations have been made 

I liable to, and bounden by, several subsidies, payments, rates, 

and taxes, given and granted by parliament ; though the 
said colonies and plantations have not their knights and bur- 



164 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

gesses, in the said high court of parHament, of their own 
election, to represent the condition of their country; by 
lack whereof, they have been oftentimes touched a7id grieved 
by subsidies given, granted, and assented to, in the said court, 

5 in a manner prejudicial to the commonwealth, quietness, 
rest, a7id peace, of the subjects inhabiting within the same^ 

" That, from the distance of the said colonies, and from 
other circumstances, no method hath hitherto been devised 
for procuring a representation in parliament for the said 

lo colonies." 

" That each of the said colonies hath within itself a body, 
chosen, in part or in the whole, by the freemen, freeholders, 
or other free inhabitants thereof, commonly called the gen- 
eral assembly, or general court ; with powers legally to raise, 

15 levy, and assess, according to the several usage of such 
colonies, duties and taxes towards defraying all sorts of pub- 
lic services." ^ 

" That the said general assemblies, general courts, or other 
bodies, legally qualified as aforesaid, have at sundry times 

20 freely granted several large subsidies and public aids for his 
Majesty's service, according to their abilities, when required 
thereto by letter from one of his Majesty's principal secre- 
taries of state ; and that their right to grant the same, and 
their cheerfulness and sufficiency in the said grants, have 

25 been at sundry times acknowledged by parliament." 

" That it hath been found by experience, that the manner 
of granting the said supplies and aids, by the said general 
assemblies, hath been more agreeable to the inhabitants of 
the said colonies, and more beneficial and conducive to the 

30 public service, than the mode of giving and granting aids and 
subsidies in parliament to be raised and paid in the said 
colonies." 



ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 165 

"That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the 
seventh year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 
An act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and 
plantations in America ; for allowing a drawback of the 
duties of customs, upon the exportation from this kingdom, 5 
of coffee and cocoa-nuts, of the produce of the said colonies 
or plantations ; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable on 
China earthenware exported to America ; and for more ef- 
fectually preventing the clandestine running of goods in the 
said colonies and plantations." 10 

"That it may be proper to repeal an act made in the 
fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled. 
An act to discontinue, in such manner, and for such time, as 
are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or 
shipping of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town, and 15 
within the harbour, of Boston, in the province of Massachu- 
setts Bay, in North America." 

"That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the 
fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled. 
An act for the impartial administration of justice, in cases of 20 
persons questioned for any acts done by them in the execu- 
tion of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, 
in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England." 

" That it is proper to repeal an act, made in the fourteenth 
year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled. An act 25 
for the better regulating the government of the province of 
Massachusetts Bay, in New England." 

" That it is proper to explain and amend an act made in 
the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry VIII., in- 
tituled. An act for the trial of treasons committed out of the 30 
kinsf's dominions." 



166 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 

*' That, from the time when the general assembly, or gen- 
eral court, of any colony or plantation, in North America, 
shall have appointed, by act of assembly duly confirmed, a 
settled salary to the offices of the chief justice and judges of 

5 the superior courts, it may be proper that the said chief 
justice and other judges of the superior courts of such colony 
shall hold his and their office and offices during their good 
behaviour ; and shall not be removed therefrom, but when 
the said removal shall be adjudged by his Majesty in council, 

lo upon a hearing on complaint from the general assembly, or 

on a complaint from the governor, or council, or the house 

of representatives, severally, of the colony in which the said 

chief justice and other judges have exercised the said office." 

" That it may be proper to regulate the courts of admiralty, 

15 or vice-admiralty, authorized by the fifteenth chapter of the 
fourth of George III., in such a manner, as to make the same 
more commodious to those who sue, or are sued, in the said 
courts ; and to provide for the more decent maintenance of 
the judges of the sained 



A LETTER 

TO 

JOHN FARR AND JOHN HARRIS, Esqrs., 

Sheriffs of the City of Bristol, 

ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 

1777. 



Gentlemen : I have the honour of sending you the two 
last acts which have been passed with regard to the troubles 
in America. These acts are similar to all the rest which 
have been made on the same subject. They operate by the 
same principle ; and they are derived from the very same 5 
policy. I think they complete the number of this sort of 
statutes to nine. It affords no matter for very pleasing 
reflection to observe that our subjects diminish as our laws 
increase. 

If I have the misfortune of differing with some of my to 
fellow-citizens on this great and arduous subject, it is no 
small consolation to me that I do not differ from you. With 
you I am perfectly united. We are heartily agreed in our 
detestation of a civil war. We have ever expressed the 
most unqualified disapprobation of all the steps which have 15 
led to it, and of all those whi9h, tend to prolong it. And I 
have no doubt that we feel exactly the same emotions of 
grief and shame in all its nfijserable consequences ; whether 
they appear, on the one side or the other, in the shape of 

167 



168 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

victories or defeats, of captures made from the English on 
the continent, or from the EngHsh in these islands ; of legis- 
lative regulations which subvert the Uberties of our brethren, 
or which undermine our own. 

5 Of the first of these statutes (that for the letter of marque)^ 
I shall say little. Exceptionable as it may be, and as I think 
it is in some particulars, it seems the natural, perhaps neces- 
sary, result of the measures we have taken, and the situation 
we are in. The other (for a partial suspension of the Habeas 

lo CorpusY appears to me of a much deeper malignity. Dur- 
ing its progress through the House of Commons, it has been 
amended, so as to express, more distinctly than at first it 
did, the avowed sentiments of those who framed it : and the 
main ground of my exception to it is, because it does express, 

15 and does carry into execution, purposes which appear to me 
so contradictory to all the principles, not only of the consti- 
tutional policy of Great Britain, but even of that species of 
hostile justice, which no asperity of war wholly extinguishes 
in the minds of a civihzed people. 

20 It seems to have in view two capital objects ; the first, to 
enable administration to confine, as long as it shall think 
proper, those whom that act is pleased to qualify by the 
name oi pirates. Those so qualified I understand to be the 
commanders and mariners of such privateers and ships of 

25 war belonging to the colonies, as in the course of this un- 
happy contest may fall into the hands of the crown. They 
are therefore to be detained in prison, under the criminal 
description of piracy, to a future trial and ignominious pun- 
ishment, whenever circumstances shall make it convenient 

30 to execute vengeance on them, under the colour of that 
odious and infamous offence. 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA, 169 

To this first purpose of the law I have no small dislike; 
because the act does not (as all laws and all equitable trans- 
actions ought to do) fairly describe its object. The persons 
who make a naval war upon us, in consequence of the present 
troubles, may be rebels ; but to call and treat them as pirates, 5 
is confounding, not only the natural distinction of things, but 
the order of crimes : which, whether by putting them from a 
higher part of the scale to the lower, or from the lower to 
the higher, is never done without dangerously disordering 
the whole frame of jurisprudence. Though piracy may be, 10 
in the eye of the law, a less offence than treason ; yet as 
both are, in effect, punished with the same death, the same 
forfeiture, and the same corruption of blood, I never would 
take from any fellow-creature whatever any sort of advantage 
which he may derive to his safety from the pity of mankind, 15 
or to his reputation from their general feelings, by degrad- 
ing his offence, when I cannot soften his punishment. The 
general sense of mankind tells me, that those offences, which 
may possibly arise from mistaken virtue, are not in the class 
of infamous actions. Lord Coke, the oracle of the English 20 
law, conforms to that general sense where he says, that 
" those things which are of the highest criminality may be 
of the least disgrace." The act prepares a sort of masked 
proceeding, not honourable to the justice of the kingdom, 
and by no means necessary for its safety. I cannot enter 25 
into it. If Lord Balmerino,^ in the last rebellion, had driven 
off the cattle of twenty clans, I should have thought it would 
have been a scandalous and low juggle, utterly unworthy of 
the manliness of an English judicature, to have tried him 
for felony as a stealer of cows. 30 

Besides, I must honestly tell you, that I could not vote for. 



170 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

or countenance in any way, a statute, which stigmatizes with 
the crime of piracy these men, whom an act of parhament 
had previously put out of the protection of the law. When 
the legislature of this kingdom had ordered all their ships 

5 and goods, for the mere new-created offence of exercising 
trade, to be divided as a spoil among the seamen of the navy,^ 
— to consider the necessary reprisal of an unhappy, pro- 
scribed, interdicted people, as the crime of piracy, would 
have appeared, in any other legislature than ours, a strain of 

10 the most insulting and most unnatural cruelty and injustice. 
I assure you I never remember to have heard of anything 
like it in any time or country. 

The second professed purpose of the act is, to detain in 
England for trial those who shall commit high treason in 

15 America. 

That you may be enabled to enter into the true spirit of 
the present law, it is necessary, gentlemen, to apprize you, 
that there is an act, made so long ago as in the reign of 
Henry the Eighth, before the existence or thought of any 

20 English colonies in America, for the trial in this kingdom of 
treasons committed out of the realm. In the year 1769, par- 
liament thought proper to acquaint the crown with their 
construction of that act in a formal address, wherein they 
entreated his Majesty to cause persons, charged with high 

25 treason in America, to be brought into this kingdom for 
trial. By this act of Henry the Eighth, so cotistrued a?id 
so applied, almost all that is substantial and beneficial in a 
trial by a jury is taken away from the subject in the colonies.^ 
This is however saying too little ; for to try a man under 

30 that act is, in effect, to condemn him unheard. A person is 
brought hither in the dungeon of a ship's hold ; thence he 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 171 

is vomited into a dungeon on land ; loaded with irons, unfur- 
nished with money, unsupported by friends, three thousand 
miles from all means of calling upon or confronting evidence, 
where no one local circumstance that tends to detect perjury, 
can possibly be judged of; — such a person may be executed 5 
according to form, but he can never be tried according to 
justice. 

I therefore could never reconcile myself to the bill I send 
you ; which is expressly provided to remove all inconven- 
iences from the establishment of a mode of trial, which has 10 
ever appeared to me most unjust and most unconstitutional. 
Far from removing the difficulties which impede the execu- 
tion of so mischievous a project, I would heap new difficulties 
upon it, if it were in my power. All the ancient, honest, 
juridical principles and institutions of England are so many 15 
clogs to check and retard the headlong course of violence 
and oppression. They were invented for this one good 
purpose, that what was not just should not be convenient. 
Convinced of this, I would leave things as I found them. 
The old, cool-headed, general law, is as good as any devia- 20 
tion dictated by present heat. 

I could see no fair, justifiable expedience pleaded to favour 
this new suspension of the hberty of the subject. If the 
English in the colonies can support the independency, to 
which they have been unfortunately driven, I suppose no- 25 
body has such a fanatical zeal for the criminal justice of 
Henry the Eighth, that he will contend for executions which 
must be retaliated tenfold on his own friends ; or who has 
conceived so strange an idea of English dignity, as to think 
the defeats in America compensated by the triumphs at Ty- 30 
burn.^ If, on the contrary, the colonies are reduced to the 



172 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

obedience of the crown, there must be, under that authority, 
tribunals in the country itself, fully competent to administer 
justice on all offenders. But if there are not, and that we 
must suppose a thing so humiliating to our government, as 

5 that all this vast continent should unanimously concur in 
thinking, that no ill fortune can convert resistance to the 
royal authority into a criminal act, we may call the effect of 
our victory peace, or obedience, or what we will ; but the 
war is not ended ; the hostile mind continues in full vigour, 

10 and it continues under a worse form. If your peace be 
nothing more than a sullen pause from arms ; if their quiet 
be nothing but the meditation of revenge, where smitten pride 
smarting from its wounds festers into new rancour ; neither 
the act of Henry the Eighth, nor its handmaid of this reign, 

15 will answer any wise end of policy or justice. For if the 
bloody fields, which they saw and felt, are not suiBcient to 
subdue the reason of America, (to use the expressive phrase 
of a great lord in office,) it is not the judicial slaughter, 
which is made in another hemisphere against their universal 

20 sense of justice, that will ever reconcile them to the British 
government. 

I take it for granted, gentlemen, that we sympathize in a 
proper horror of all punishment further than as it serves for 
an example. To whom then does the example of an execu- 

25 tion in England for this American rebellion apply ? Remem- 
ber, you are told every day, that the present is a contest 
between the two countries ; and that we in England are at 
war for our own dignity against our rebelHous children. Is 
this true ? If it be, it is surely among such rebelhous chil- 

30 dren that examples for disobedience should be made, to be 
in any degree instructive : for whoever thought of teaching 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 173 

parents their duty by an example from the punishment of an 
undutiful son? As well might the execution of a fugitive 
negro in the plantations be considered as a lesson to teach 
masters humanity to their slaves. Such executions may in- 
deed satiate our revenge ; they may harden our hearts, and 5 
puff us up with pride and arrogance. Alas ! this is not 
instruction ! 

If anything can be drawn from such examples by a parity 
of the case, it is to show how deep their crime and how 
heavy their punishment will be, who shall at any time dare 10 
to resist a distant power actually disposing of their property, 
without their voice or consent to the disposition ; and over- 
turning their franchises without charge or hearing. God for- 
bid that England should ever read this lesson written in the 
blood of any of her offspring ! 15 

War is at present carried on between the king's natural 
and foreign troops ^ on one side, and the EngHsh in America 
on the other, upon the usual footing of other wars ; and ac- 
cordingly an exchange of prisoners has been regularly made 
from the beginning. If notwithstanding this hitherto equal 20 
procedure, upon some prospect of ending the war with suc- 
cess, (which however may be delusive,) administration pre- 
pares to act against those as traitors who remain in their 
hands at the end of the troubles, in my opinion we shall 
exhibit to the world as indecent a piece of injustice as ever 25 
civil fury has produced. If the prisoners, who have been 
exchanged, have not by that exchange been vh'tually par- 
doned, the cartel (whether avowed or understood) is a cruel 
fraud ; for you have received the life of a man, and you 
ought to return a life for it, or there is no parity of fairness 30 
in the transaction. 



174 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

If, on the other hand, we admit, that they who are actually 
exchanged are pardoned, but contend that you may justly 
reserve for vengeance those who remain unexchanged ; then 
this unpleasant and unhandsome consequence will follow ; 

5 that you judge of the dehnquency of men merely by the 
time of their guilt, and not by the heinousness of it ; and 
you make fortune and accidents, and not the moral qualities 
of human action, the rule of your justice. 

These strange incongruities must ever perplex those who 

lo confound the unhappiness of civil dissensions with the crime 
of treason. Whenever a rebellion really and truly exists, 
which is as easily known in fact as it is difficult to define in 
words, government has not entered into such military con- 
ventions ; but has ever declined all intermediate treaty, which 

15 should put rebels in possession of the law of nations with 
regard to war. Commanders would receive no benefits at 
their hands, because they could make no return for them. 
Who has ever heard of capitulation, and parole of honour, 
and exchange of prisoners, in the late rebellions in this king- 

20 dom ? The answer to all demands of that sort was, " We 
can engage for nothing; you are at the king's pleasure." 
We ought to remember, that if our present enemies be, in 
reality and truth, rebels, the king's generals have no right to 
release them upon any conditions whatsoever ; and they are 

25 themselves answerable to the law, and as much in want of a 
pardon for doing so, as the rebels whom they release. 

Lawyers, I know, cannot make the distinction for which I 
contend ; because they have their strict rule to go by. But 
legislators ought to do what lawyers cannot ; for they have 

30 no other rules to bind them, but the great principles of rea- 
son and equity, and the general sense of mankind. These 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 175 

they are bound to obey and follow ; and rather to enlarge 
and enlighten law by the liberality of legislative reason, than 
to fetter and bind their higher capacity by the narrow con- 
structions of subordinate, artificial j ustice. If we had adverted 
to this, we never could consider the convulsions of a great 5 
empire, not disturbed by a Uttle disseminated faction, but 
divided by whole communities and provinces, and entire legal 
representatives of a people, as fit matter of discussion under 
a commission of Oyer and Terminer.^ It is as opposite to 
reason and prudence, as it is to humanity and justice. 10 

This act, proceeding on these principles, that is, preparing 
to end the present troubles by a trial of one sort of hostility 
under the name of piracy, and of another by the name of 
treason, and executing the act of Henry the Eighth accord- 
ing to a new and unconstitutional interpretation, I have 15 
thought evil and dangerous, even though the instruments of 
effecting such purposes had been merely of a neutral quality. 

But it really appears to me, that the means which this act 
employs are, at least, as exceptionable as the end. Permit 
me to open myself a Httle upon this subject, because it is of 20 
importance to me, when I am obliged to submit to the power 
without acquiescing in the reason of an act of legislature, 
that I should justify my dissent by such arguments as may 
be supposed to have weight with a sober man. 

The main operative regulation of the act is to suspend 25 
the common law, and the statute Habeas Corpus, (the sole 
securities either for liberty or justice,) with regard to all those 
who have been out of the realm, or on the high seas, within 
a given time. The rest of the people, as I understand, are 
to continue as they stood before. 30 

I confess, gentlemen, that this appears to me as bad in the 



176 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

principle, and far worse in its consequence, than an universal 
suspension of the Habeas Corpus act ; and the limiting quali- 
fication, instead of taking out the sting, does in my humble 
opinion sharpen and envenom it to a greater degree. Liberty, 

5 if I understand it at all, is a general principle, and the clear 
right of all the subjects within the realm, or of none. Partial 
freedom seems to me a most invidious mode of slavery. But, 
unfortunately, it is the kind of slavery the most easily admitted 
in times of civil discord ; for parties are but too apt to forget 

10 their own future safety in their desire of sacrificing their 
enemies. People without much difficulty admit the entrance 
of that injustice of which they are not to be the immediate 
victims. In times of high proceeding it is never the faction 
of the predominant power that is in danger : for no tyranny 

15 chastises its own instruments. It is the obnoxious and the 
suspected who want the protection of law ; and there is 
nothing to bridle the partial violence of state factions, but 
this ; " that whenever an act is made for a cessation of law 
and justice, the whole people should be universally subjected 

20 to the same suspension of their franchises." The alarm of 
such a proceeding would then be universal. It would operate 
as a sort of Call of the nation. It would become every man's 
immediate and instant concern to be made very sensible of 
the absolute necessity of this total eclipse of liberty. They 

25 would more carefully advert to every renewal, and more pow- 
erfully resist it. These great determined measures are not 
commonly so dangerous to freedom. They are marked with 
too strong lines to sHde into use. No plea, nor pretence, of 
incojivenience or evil example (which must in their nature 

30 be daily and ordinary incidents) can be admitted as a 
reason for such mighty operations. But the true danger is, 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AJMERICA. 177 

when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts. 
The Habeas Corpus act supposes, contrary to the genius of 
most other laws, that the lawful magistrate may see particular 
men with a malignant eye, and it provides for that identical 
case. But when men, in particular descriptions, marked out 5 
by the magistrate himself, are delivered over by parliament 
to this possible malignity, it is not the Habeas Corpus that 
is occasionally suspended, but its spirit that is mistaken, and 
its principle that is subverted. Indeed nothing is security to 
any individual but the common interest of all. 10 

This act, therefore, has this distinguished evil in it, that it 
is the first partial suspension of the Habeas Corpus that has 
been made. The precedent, which is always of very great 
importance, is now established. For the first time a distinc- 
tion is made among the people within this realm. Before 15 
this act, every man putting his foot on English ground, every 
stranger owing only a local and temporary allegiance, even 
negro slaves who had been sold in the colonies and under 
an act of parliament, became as free as every other man 
who breathed the same air with them. Now a line is drawn, 20 
which may be advanced farther and farther at pleasure, on 
the same argument of mere expedience, on which it was 
first described. There is no equality among us ; we are not 
fellow-citizens, if the mariner, who lands on the quay, does 
not rest on as firm legal ground as the merchant who sits in 25 
his counting-house. Other laws may injure the community, 
this dissolves it. As things now stand, every man in the 
West Indies, every one inhabitant of three unoffending prov- 
inces on the continent, every person coming from the East 
Indies, every gentleman who has travelled for his health or 30 
education, every mariner who has navigated the seas, is, for 



178 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

no other offence, under a temporary proscription. Let any 
of these facts (now become presumptions of guilt) be proved 
against him, and the bare suspicion of the crown puts him 
out of the law. It is even by no means clear to me, whether 

5 the negative proof does not lie upon the person apprehended 
on suspicion, to the subversion of all justice, 

I have not debated against this bill in its progress through 
the House ; because it would have been vain to oppose, and 
impossible to correct it. It is some time since I have been 

10 clearly convinced, that in the present state of things all 
opposition to any measures proposed by ministers, where 
the name of America appears, is vain and frivolous. You 
may be sure that I do not speak of my opposition, which 
in all circumstances must be so ; but that of men of the 

15 greatest wisdom and authority in the nation. Everything 
proposed against America is supposed of course to be in 
favour of Great Britain. Good and ill success are equally 
admitted as reasons for persevering in the present methods. 
Several very prudent, and very well-intentioned, persons were 

20 of opinion, that during the prevalence of such dispositions, 
all struggle rather inflamed than lessened the distemper of 
the public councils. Finding such resistance to be consid- 
ered as factious by most within-doors, and by very many 
without, I cannot conscientiously support what is against my 

25 opinion, nor prudently contend with what I know is irresist- 
ible. Preserving my principles unshaken, I reserve my 
activity for rational endeavours ; and I hope that my past 
conduct has given sufficient evidence that if I am a single 
day from my place, it is not owing to indolence or love of 

30 dissipation. The slightest hope of doing good is sufficient 
to recall me to what I quitted with regret. In declining for 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 179 

some time my usual strict attendance, I do not in the least 
condemn the spirit of those gentlemen, who, with a just 
confidence in their abilities, (in which I claim a sort of share 
from my love and admiration of them,) were of opinion that 
their exertions in this desperate case might be of some ser- 5 
vice. They thought, that by contracting the sphere of its 
application, they might lessen the malignity of an evil prin- 
ciple. Perhaps they were in the right. But when my opin- 
ion was so very clearly to the contrary, for the reasons I 
have just stated, I am sure my attendance would have been 10 
ridiculous.^ 

I must add in further explanation of my conduct, that, far 
from softening the features of such a principle, and thereby 
removing any part of the popular odium or natural terrors 
attending it, I should be sorry that anything framed in con- 15 
tradiction to the spirit of our constitution did not instantly 
produce, in fact, the grossest of the evils with which it was 
pregnant in its nature. It is by lying dormant a long time, 
or being at first very rarely exercised, that arbitrary power 
steals upon a people. On the next unconstitutional act, all 20 
the fashionable world will be ready to say — Your prophecies 
are ridiculous, your fears are vain, you see how little of the 
mischiefs which you formerly foreboded are come to pass. 
Thus, by degrees, that artful softening of all arbitrary power, 
the alleged infrequency or narrow extent of its operation, 25 
will be received as a sort of aphorism — and Mr. Hume will 
not be singular in telling us that the felicity of mankind is 
no more disturbed by it, than by earthquakes or thunder, or 
the other more unusual accidents of nature. 

The act of which I speak is among the fruits of the 30 
American war ; a war in my humble opinion productive of 



ISO LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

many mischiefs, of a kind which distinguish it from all 
others. Not only our policy is deranged, and our empire 
distracted, but our laws and our legislative spirit appear to 
have been totally perverted by it. We have made war on 

5 our colonies, not by arms only, but by laws. As hostility 
and law are not very concordant ideas, every step we have 
taken in this business has been made by trampling on some 
maxim of justice, or some capital principle of wise govern- 
ment. What precedents were established, and what prin- 

10 ciples overturned, (I will not say of English privilege, but 
of general justice,) in the Boston Port, the Massachusetts 
Charter, the Mihtary Bill,^ and all that long array of hostile 
acts of parliament, by which the war with America has been 
begun and supported ! Had the principles of any of these 

15 acts been first exerted on English ground, they would prob- 
ably have expired as soon as they touched it. But by being 
removed from our persons, they have rooted in our laws, 
and the latest posterity will taste the fruits of them. 

Nor is it the worst effect of this unnatural contention, 

20 that our laws are corrupted. Whilst manneis remain entire, 
they will correct the vices of law, and soften it at length to 
their own temper. But we have to lament, that in most of 
the late proceedings we see very few traces of that gener- 
osity, humanity, and dignity of mind, which formerly char- 

25 acterized this nation. War suspends the rules of moral 
obligation, and what is long suspended is in danger of being 
totally abrogated. Civil wars strike deepest of all into the 
manners of the people. They vitiate their politics ; they 
corrupt their morals ; they pervert even the natural taste 

30 and relish of equity and justice. By teaching us to consider 
our fellow-citizens in a hostile hght, the whole body of our 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 181 

nation becomes gradually less dear to us. The very names 
of affection and kindred, which were the bond of charity 
whilst we agreed, become new incentives to hatred and 
rage, when the communion of our country is dissolved. We 
may flatter ourselves that we shall not fall into this misfor- 5 
tune. But we have no charter of exemption, that I know 
of, from the ordinary frailties of our nature. 

What but that blindness of heart which arises from the 
phrensy of civil contention, could have made any persons 
conceive the present situation of the British affairs as an 10 
object of triumph to themselves, or of congratulation to 
their sovereign? Nothing surely could be more lamentable 
to those who remember the flourishing days of this kingdom, 
than to see the insane joy of several unhappy people, amidst 
the sad spectacle which our affairs and conduct exhibit to 15 
the scorn of Europe. We behold (and it seems some people 
rejoice in beholding) our native land, which used to sit the 
envied arbiter of all her neighbours, reduced to a servile 
dependence on their mercy; acquiescing in assurances of 
friendship which she does not trust ; complaining of hostil- 20 
ities which she dares not resent ; deficient to her allies ; lofty 
to her subjects, and submissive to her enemies;^ whilst the 
liberal government of this free nation is supported by the 
hireling sword of German boors and vassals ; and three mil- 
lions of the subjects of Great Britain are seeking for protec- 25 
tion to English privileges in the arms of France ! ^ 

These circumstances appear to me more like shocking 
prodigies, than natural changes in human affairs. Men of 
firmer minds may see them without staggering or astonish- 
ment. — Some may think them matters of congratulation and 30 
complimentary addresses ; but I trust your candour will be 



182 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

SO indulgent to my weakness, as not to have the worse opin- 
ion of me for my dechning to participate in this joy, and 
my rejecting all share whatsoever in such a triumph. I am 
too old, too stiff in my inveterate partialities, to be ready at 

5 all the fashionable evolutions of opinion. I scarcely know 
how to adapt my mind to the feelings with which the court 
gazettes mean to impress the people. It is not instantly 
that I can be brought to rejoice, when I hear of the slaughter 
and captivity of long lists of those names which have been 

10 familiar to my ears from my infancy, and to rejoice that 
they have fallen under the sword of strangers, whose barbar- 
ous appellations I scarcely know how to pronounce. The 
glory acquired at the White Plains by Colonel Raille has no 
charms for me ; and I fairly acknowledge, that I have not 

15 yet learned to delight in finding Fort Kniphausen in the 
heart of the British dominions.^ 

It might be some consolation for the loss of our old 
regards, if our reason were enlightened in proportion as 
our honest prejudices are removed. Wanting feelings for 

20 the honour of our country, we might then in cold blood be 
brought to think a litde of our interests as individual citizens, 
and our private conscience as moral agents. 

Indeed our affairs are in a bad condition. I do assure 
those gentlemen who have prayed for war, and have obtained 

25 the blessing they have sought, that they are at this instant 
in very great straits. The abused wealth of this country 
continues a little longer to feel its distemper. As yet they, 
and their German allies of twenty hireling states," have con- 
tended only with the unprepared strength of our own infant 

30 colonies. But America is not subdued. Not one unattacked 
village which was originally adverse throughout that vast 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 183 

continent, has yet submitted from love or terror. You have 
the ground you encamp on ; and you have no more. The 
cantonments of your troops and your dominions are exactly 
of the same extent. You spread devastation, but you do 
not enlarge the sphere of authority. 5 

The events of this war are of so much greater magnitude 
than those who either wished or feared it ever looked for, 
that this alone ought to fill every considerate mind with 
anxiety and diffidence. Wise men often tremble at the very 
things which fill the thoughtless with security. For many 10 
reasons I do not choose to expose to public view all the 
particulars of the state in which you stood with regard to 
foreign powers, during the whole course of the last year. 
Whether you are yet wholly out of danger from them, is 
more than I know, or than your rulers can divine. But 15 
even if I were certain of my safety, I could not easily for- 
give those who had brought me into the most dreadful 
perils, because by accidents, unforeseen by them or me, I 
have escaped. 

Believe me, gentlemen, the way still before you is intricate, 20. 
dark, and full of perplexed and treacherous mazes. Those 
who think they have the clue may lead us out of this laby- 
rinth. We may trust them as amply as we think proper; 
but as they have most certainly a call for all the reason 
which their stock can furnish, why should we think it proper 25 
to disturb its operation by inflaming their passions ? I may 
be unable to lend an helping hand to those who direct the 
state ; but I should be ashamed to make myself one of a 
noisy multitude to halloo and hearten them into doubtful 
and dangerous courses. A conscientious man would be 30 
cautious how he dealt in blood. He would feel some ap- 



184 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

prehension at being called to a tremendous account for 
engaging in so deep a play, without any sort of knowledge 
of the game. It is no excuse for presumptuous ignorance, 
that it is directed by insolent passion. The poorest being 

5 that crawls on earth, contending to save itself from injustice 
and oppression, is an object respectable in the eyes of God 
and man. But I cannot conceive any existence under 
heaven, (which, in the depths of its wisdom, tolerates all 
sorts of things,) that is more truly odious and disgusting, 

10 than an impotent, helpless creature, without civil wisdom or 
military skill, without a consciousness of any other qualifica- 
tion for power but his servility to it, bloated with pride and 
arrogance, calling for battles which he is not to fight, con- 
tending for a violent dominion which he can never exercise, 

15 and satisfied to be himself mean and miserable, in order to 
render others contemptible and wretched. 

If you and I find our talents not of the great and ruling 
kind, our conduct, at least, is conformable to our faculties. 
No man's life pays the forfeit of our rashness. No desolate 

20 widow weeps tears of blood over our ignorance. Scrupulous 
and sober in our well-grounded distrust of ourselves, we 
would keep in the port of peace and security ; and perhaps 
in recommending to others something of the same diffidence, 
we should show ourselves more charitable in their welfare, 

25 than injurious to their abilities. 

There are many circumstances in the zeal shown for civil 
war, which seem to discover but little of real magnanimity. 
The addressers offer their own persons, and they are satis- 
fied with hiring Germans. They promise their private for- 

30 tunes, and they mortgage their country. They have all the 
merit of volunteers, without risk of person or charge of con- 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 185 

tribution ; and when the unfeeling arm of a foreign soldiery 
pours out their kindred blood like water, they exult and tri- 
umph as if they themselves had performed some notable 
exploit. I am really ashamed of the fashionable language 
which has been held for some time past ; which, to say the 5 
best of it, is full of levity. You know that I allude to the 
general cry against the cowardice of the Americans, as if we 
despised them for not making the king's soldiery purchase 
the advantage they have obtained at a dearer rate.^ It is 
not, gentlemen, it is not to respect the dispensations of Provi- 10 
dence, nor to provide any decent retreat in the mutabiHty 
of human affairs. It leaves no medium between insolent 
victory and infamous defeat. It tends to alienate our minds 
farther and farther from our natural regards, and to make 
an eternal rent and schism in the British nation. Those 15 
who do not wish for such a separation, would not dissolve 
that cement of reciprocal esteem and regard, which can 
alone bind together the parts of this great fabric. It ought 
to be our wish, as it is our duty, not only to forbear this 
style of outrage ourselves, but to make every one as sensi- 20 
ble as we can of the impropriety and unworthiness of the 
tempers which give rise to it, and which designing men are 
labouring with such malignant industry to diffuse amongst 
us. It is our business to counteract them, if possible ; if 
possible, to awake our natural regards ; and to revive the 25 
old partiality to the Enghsh name. Without something of 
this kind I do not see how it is ever practicable really to 
reconcile with those, whose affection, after all, must be the 
surest hold of our government ; and which is a thousand 
times more worth to us, than the mercenary zeal of all the 30 
circles of Germany, 



186 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

I can well conceive a country completely overrun, and 
miserably wasted, without approaching in the least to settle- 
ment. In my apprehension, as long as Enghsh government 
is attempted to be supported over Englishmen by the sword 

5 alone, things will thus continue. I anticipate in my mind 
the moment of the final triumph of foreign military force. 
When that hour arrives, (for it may arrive,) then it is, that 
all this mass of weakness and violence will appear in its full 
light. If we should be expelled from America, the delusion 

lo of the partisans of military government might still continue. 
They might still feed their imaginations with the possible 
good consequences which might have attended success. 
Nobody could prove the contrary by facts. But in case the 
sword should do all that the sword can do, the success of 

15 their arms and the defeat of their pohcy will be one and the 
same thing. You will never see any revenue from America. 
Some increase of the means of corruption, without ease of 
the public burthens, is the very best that can happen. Is it 
for this that we are at war ; and in such a war ? 

20 As to the difficulties of laying once more the foundations 
of that government, which, for the sake of conquering what 
was our own, has been voluntarily and wantonly pulled down 
by a court faction here, I tremble to look at them. Has any 
of these gentlemen, who are so eager to govern all mankind, 

25 showed himself possessed of the first quahfication towards 
government, some knowledge of the object, and of the diffi- 
culties which occur in the task they have undertaken ? 

I assure you, that, on the most prosperous issue of your 
arms, you will not be where you stood, when you called in 

30 war to supply the defects of your political establishment. 
Nor would any disorder or disobedience to government 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 187 

which could arise from the most abject concession on our 
part, ever equal those which will be felt, after the most 
triumphant violence. You have got all the intermediate 
evils of war into the bargain. 

I think I know America.^ If I do not, my ignorance is 5 
incurable, for I have spared no pains to understand it : and 
I do most solemnly assure those of my constituents who put 
any sort of confidence in my industry and integrity, that 
every thing that has been done there has arisen from a total 
misconception of the object; that our means of originally 10 
holding America, that our means of reconciling with it after 
quarrel, of recovering it after separation, of keeping it after 
victory, did depend, and must depend in their several stages 
and periods, upon a total renunciation of that unconditional 
submission, which has taken such possession of the minds 15 
of violent men. The whole of those maxims, upon which 
we have made and continued this war, must be abandoned. 
Nothing indeed (for I would not deceive you) can place us 
in our former situation. That hope must be laid aside. 
But there is a difference between bad and the worst of all. 20 
Terms relative to the cause of the war ought to be offered 
by the authority of parliament. An arrangement at home 
promising some security for them ought to be made. By 
doing this, without the least impairing of our strength, we 
add to the credit of our moderation, which, in itself, is 25 
always strength more or less. 

I know many have been taught to think, that moderation, 
in a case like this, is a sort of treason ; and that all argu- 
ments for it are sufficiently answered by raihng at rebels and 
rebellion, and by charging all the present or future miseries, 30 
which we may suffer, on the resistance of our brethren. But 



188 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

I would wish them, in this grave matter, and if peace is not 
wholly removed from their hearts, to consider seriously, first, 
that to criminate and recriminate never yet was the road to 
reconciliation, in any difference amongst men. In the next 

5 place, it would be right to reflect, that the American English 
(whom they may abuse, if they think it honourable to revile 
the absent) can, as things now stand, neither be provoked 
at our railing, nor bettered by our instruction. All com- 
munication is cut off between us,^ but this we know with cer- 

lo tainty, that, though we cannot reclaim them, we may reform 
ourselves. If measures of peace are necessary, they must 
begin somewhere ; and a conciliatory temper must precede 
and prepare every plan of reconciliation. Nor do I con- 
ceive that we suffer anything by thus regulating our own 

15 minds. We are not disarmed by being disencumbered of 
our passions. Declaiming on rebellion never added a bayo- 
net, or a charge of powder, to your military force ; but I am 
afraid that it has been the means of taking up many muskets 
against you. 

20 This outrageous language, which has been encouraged and 
kept alive by every art, has already done incredible mischief. 
For a long time, even amidst the desolations of war, and the 
insults of hostile laws daily accumulated on one another, the 
American leaders seem to have had the greatest difficulty in 

25 bringing up their people to a declaration of total independ- 
ence.^ But the court gazette accompHshed what the abettors 
of independence had attempted in vain. When that disin- 
genuous compilation, and strange medley of railing and flat- 
tery, was adduced as a proof of the united sentiments of the 

30 people of Great Britain, there was a great change through- 
out all America. The tide of popular affection, which had 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA, 189 

Still set towards the parent country, begun immediately to 
turn, and to flow with great rapidity in a contrary course. 
Far from concealing these wild declarations of enmity, the 
author of the celebrated pamphlet, which prepared the minds 
of the people for independence, insist largely on the multi- 5 
tude and the spirit of these addresses ; and he draws an 
argument from them, which (if the fact was as he supposes) 
must be irresistible. For I never knew a writer on the 
theory of government so partial to authority as not to allow, 
that the hostile mind of the rulers to their people did fully 10 
justify a change of government ; nor can any reason what- 
ever be given, why one people should voluntarily yield any 
degree of pre-eminence to another, but on a supposition of 
great affection and benevolence towards them. Unfortunately 
your rulers, trusting to other things, took no notice of this 15 
great principle of connexion. From the beginning of this 
affair, they have done all they could to alienate your minds 
from your own kindred ; and if they could excite hatred 
enough in one of the parties towards the other, they seemed 
to be of opinion that they had gone half the way towards 20 
reconciling the quarrel. 

I know it is said, that your kindness is only ahenated on 
account of their resistance ; and therefore if the colonies 
surrender at discretion, all sort of regard, and even much 
indulgence, is meant towards them in future. But can those 25 
who are partisans for continuing a war to enforce such a sur- 
render be responsible (after all that has passed) for such a 
future use of a power, that is bound by no compacts, and 
restrained by no terror? Will they tell us what they call 
indulgences ? Do they not at this instant call the present 30 
war, and all its horrors, a lenient and merciful proceeding? 



190 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

No conqueror, that I ever heard of, has p7'ofessed to make 
a cruel, harsh, and msolent use of his conquest. No ! The 
man of the most declared pride scarcely dares to trust his 
own heart with this dreadful secret of ambition. But it will 

5 appear in its time ; and no man, who professes to reduce 
another to the insolent mercy of a foreign arm, ever had any 
sort of good-will towards him. The profession of kindness, 
with that sword in his hand, and that demand of surrender, 
is one of the most provoking acts of his hostility. I shall be 

10 told, that all this is lenient as against rebellious adversaries. 
But are the leaders of their faction more lenient to those 
who submit? Lord Howe and General Howe have powers, 
under an act of parliament, to restore to the king's peace 
and to free trade any men, or district, which shall submit.^ 

15 Is this done? We have been over and over informed by 
the authorized gazette, that the city of New York, and the 
countries of Staten and Long Island, have submitted volun- 
tarily and cheerfully, and that many are very full of zeal to 
the cause of administration. Were they instantly restored 

20 to trade? Are they yet restored to it? Is not the benig- 
nity of two commissioners, naturally most humane and gener- 
ous men, some way fettered by instructions, equally against 
their dispositions and spirit of parliamentary faith; when 
Mr. Tryon, vaunting of the fidehty of the city in which he is 

25 governor, is obliged to apply to ministry for leave to protect 
the king's loyal subjects, and to grant to them (not the dis- 
puted rights and privileges of freedom) but the common 
rights of men, by the name of graces ? Why do not the 
commissioners restore them on the spot? Were they not 

30 named as commissioners for that express purpose ? But we 
see well enough to what the whole leads. The trade of 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 191 

America is to be dealt out m private mdulgences and graces ; ^ 
that is, in jobs to recompense the incendiaries of war. They 
will be informed of the proper time in which to send out their 
merchandise. From a national, the American trade is to be 
turned into a personal monopoly : and one set of merchants 5 
are to be rewarded for the pretended zeal, of which another 
set are the dupes ; and thus, between craft and credulity, 
the voice of reason is stifled ; and all the misconduct, all 
the calamities of the war are covered and continued. 

If I had not lived long enough to be little surprised at 10 
anything, I should have been in some degree astonished at 
the continued rage of several gentlemen, who, not satisfied 
with carrying fire and sword into America, are animated 
nearly with the same fury against those neighbours of theirs, 
whose only crime it is, that they have charitably and hu- 15 
manely wished them to entertain more reasonable senti- 
ments, and not always to sacrifice their interest to their 
passion. All this rage against unresisting dissent convinces 
me, that, at bottom, they are far from satisfied they are in 
the right. For what is it they would have ? A war ? They 20 
certainly have at this moment the blessing of something 
that is very like one ; and if the war they enjoy at present 
be not sufficiently hot and extensive, they may shortly have 
it as warm and as spreading as their hearts can desire.^ Is 
it the force of the kingdom they call for? They have it 25 
already; and if they choose to fight their battles in their 
own person, nobody prevents their setting sail to America 
in the next transports. Do they think, that the service is 
stinted for want of liberal supphes ? Indeed they complain 
without reason. The table of the House of Commons will 30 
glut them, let their appetite for expense be never so keen. 



192 .ETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

And I assure them further, that those who think with them 
in the House of Commons are full as easy in the control, as 
they are liberal in the vote, of these expenses. If this be 
not supply or confidence sufficient, let them open their own 

5 private purse-strings, and give, from what is left to them, as 
largely and with as little care as they think proper. 

Tolerated in their passions, let them learn not to persecute 
the moderation of their fellow-citizens. If all the world 
joined them in a full cry against rebellion, and were as hotly 

10 inflamed against the whole theory and enjoyment of free- 
dom, as those who are the most factious for servitude, it 
could not in my opinion answer any one end whatsoever in 
this contest. The leaders of this war could not hire (to 
gratify their friends) one German more than they do; or 

15 inspire him with less feeling for the persons, or less value for 
the privileges, of their revolted brethren. If we all adopted 
their sentiments to a man, their allies, the savage Indians, 
could not be more ferocious than they are : they could not 
murder one more helpless woman or child, or with more 

20 exquisite refinements of cruelty torment to death one more 
of their English flesh and blood, than they do already. The 
pubHc money is given to purchase this alliance ; — and they 
have their bargain. 

They are continually boasting of unanimity ; or calling for 

25 it. But before this unanimity can be matter either of wish 
or congratulation, we ought to be pretty sure that we are 
engaged in a rational pursuit. Phrensy does not become a 
slighter distemper on account of the number of those who 
may be infected with it. Delusion and weakness produce 

30 not one mischief the less, because they are universal. I 
declare, that I cannot discern the least advantage which 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 193 

could accrue to us, if we were able to persuade our colonies 
that they had not a single friend in Great Britain. On the 
contrary, if the affections and opinions of mankind be not 
exploded as principles of connexion, I conceive it would be 
happy for us if they were taught to believe, that there was 5 
even a formed American party in England, to whom they 
could always look for support ! Happy would it be for us, 
if, in all tempers, they might turn their eyes to the parent 
state ; so that their very turbulence and sedition should find 
vent in no other place than this. I believe there is not a 10 
man (except those who prefer the interest of some paltry 
faction to the very being of their country) who would not 
wish that the Americans should from time to time carry 
many points, and even some of them not quite reasonable 
by the aid of any denomination of men here, rather than 15 
they should be driven to seek for protection against the fury 
of foreign mercenaries, and the waste of savages, in the arms 
of France. 

When any community is subordinately connected with 
another, the great danger of the connexion is the extreme 20 
pride and self-complacency of the superior, which in all 
matters of controversy will probably decide in its own favour. 
It is a powerful corrective to such a very rational cause of 
fear, if the inferior body can be made to believe, that the 
party inclination, or political views, of several in the prin- 25 
cipal state, will induce them in some degree to counteract 
this blind and tyrannical partiality. There is no danger that 
any one acquiring consideration or power in the presiding 
state should carry this learning to the inferior too far. The 
fault of human nature is not of that sort. Power, in what- 30 
ever hands, is rarely guilty of too strict limitations on itself. 



194 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

But one great advantage to the support of authority attends 
such an amicable and protecting connexion, that those who 
have conferred favours obtain influence ; and from the fore- 
sight of future events can persuade men, who have received 

5 obhgations, sometimes to return them. Thus by the media- 
tion of those heahng principles, (call them good or evil,) 
troublesome discussions are brought to some sort of adjust- 
ment ; and every hot controversy is not a civil war. 

But, if the colonies (to bring the general matter home to 

lo us) could see, that, in Great Britain, the mass of the people 
is melted into its government, and that every dispute with 
the ministry must of necessity be always a quarrel with the 
nation ; they can stand no longer in the equal and friendly 
relation of fellow- citizens to the subjects of this kingdom. 

15 Humble as this relation may appear to some, when it is once 
broken, a strong tie is dissolved. Other sort of connexions 
will be sought. For, there are very few in the world, who 
will not prefer a useful ally to an insolent master. 

Such discord has been the effect of the unanimity into 

20 which so many have of late been seduced or bullied, or into 
the appearance of which they have sunk through mere de- 
spair. They have been told that their dissent from violent 
measures is an encouragement to rebellion. Men of great 
presumption and little knowledge will hold a language which 

25 is contradicted by the whole course of history. General 
rebellions and revolts of a whole people never were eiicour- 
aged, now or at any time. They are always provoked. But 
if this unheard-of doctrine of the encouragement of rebellion 
were true, if it were true that an assurance of the friendship 

30 of numbers in this country towards the colonies could become 
an encouragement to them to break off all connexion with 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA, 195 

it, what is the inference? Does anybody seriously main- 
tain, that, charged with my share of the pubhc councils, I 
am obliged not to resist projects which I think mischievous, 
lest men who suffer should be encouraged to resist ? The 
very tendency of such projects to produce rebellion is one 5 
of the chief reasons against them. Shall that reason not be 
given? Is it then a rule, that no man in this nation shall 
open his mouth in favour of the colonies, shall defend their 
rights, or complain of their sufferings? Or when war finally 
breaks out, no man shall express his desires of peace ? Has 10 
this been the law of our past, or is it to be the terms of our 
future connexion? Even looking no farther than ourselves, 
can it be true loyalty to any government, or true patriotism 
towards any country, to degrade their solemn councils into 
servile drawing-rooms, to flatter their pride and passions, 15 
rather than to enlighten their reason, and to prevent them 
from being cautioned against violence lest others should be 
encouraged to resistance ? By such acquiescence great kings 
and mighty nations have been undone ; and if any are at this 
day in a perilous situation from resisting truth, and hstening 20 
to flattery, it would rather become them to reform the errors 
under which they suffer, than to reproach those who fore- 
warned them of their danger. 

But the rebels looked for assistance from this country. 
They did so, in the beginning of this controversy, most cer- 25 
tainly ; and they sought it by earnest supplications to gov- 
ernment, which dignity rejected, and by a suspension of 
commerce, which the wealth of this nation enabled you to 
despise. When they found that neither prayers nor menaces 
had any sort of weight, but that a firm resolution was taken 30 
to reduce them to unconditional obedience by a military 



196 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

force, they came to the last extremity. Despairing of us, 
they trusted in themselves. Not strong enough themselves, 
they sought succour in France. In proportion as all en- 
couragement here lessened, their distance from this country 

5 increased. The encouragement is over; the ahenation is 
complete.^ 

In order to produce this favourite unanimity in delusion, 
and to prevent all possibility of a return to our ancient 
happy concord, arguments for our continuance in this course 

10 are drawn from the wretched situation itself into which we 
have been betrayed. It is said, that being at war with the 
colonies, whatever our sentiments might have been before, 
all ties between us are now dissolved ; and all the policy we 
have left is to strengthen the hands of government to reduce 

15 them. On the principle of this argument, the more mis- 
chiefs we suffer from any administration, the more our trust 
in it is to be confirmed. Let them but once get us into 
a war, and then their power is safe, and an act of oblivion 
passed for all their misconduct. 

20 But is it really true, that government is always to be 
strengthened with the instruments of war, but never fur- 
nished with the means of peace ? In former times, minis- 
ters, I allow, have been sometimes driven by the popular 
voice to assert by arms the national honour against foreign 

25 powers. But the wisdom of the nation has been far more 
clear, when those ministers have been compelled to consult 
its interest by treaty. We all know that the sense of the 
nation obhged the court of King Charles the Second to 
abandon the Dutch war; a war next to the present the 

30 most impohtic which we ever carried on. The good people 
of England considered Holland as a sort of dependency on 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 197 

this kingdom ; they dreaded to drive it to the protection, 
or subject it to the power of France, by their own incon- 
siderate hostihty. They paid but Httle respect to the court 
jargon of that day ; nor were they inflamed by the pre- 
tended rivalship of the Dutch in trade ; by their massacre 5 
at Amboyna,* acted on the stage to provoke the pubHc ven- 
geance ; nor by declamations against the ingratitude of the 
United Provinces for the benefits England had conferred 
upon them in their infant state. They were not moved from 
their evident interest by all these arts ; nor was it enough to 10 
tell them, they were at war ; that they must go through with 
it ; and that the cause of the dispute was lost in the conse- 
quences. The people of England were then, as they are 
now, called upon to make government strong. They thought 
it a great deal better to make it wise and honest. 15 

' When I was amongst my constituents at the last summer 
assizes, I remember that men of all descriptions did then 
express a very strong desire for peace, and no slight hopes 
of attaining it from the commission sent out by my Lord 
Howe. And it is not a little remarkable, that, in proportion 20 
as every person showed a zeal for the court measures, he 
was then earnest in circulating an opinion of the extent of 
the supposed powers of that commission. When I told 
them that Lord Howe had no powers to treat, or to promise 
satisfaction on any point whatsoever of the controversy, I 25 
was hardly credited ; so strong and general was the desire of 
terminating this war by the method of accommodation. As 
far as I could discover, this was the temper then prevalent 
through the kingdom. The king's forces, it must be ob- 
served, had at that time been obliged to evacuate Boston. 30 
The superiority of the former campaign rested wholly with 



198 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

the colonists. If such powers of treaty were to be wished, 
whilst success was very doubtful, how came they to be less 
so, since his Majesty's arms have been crowned with many 
considerable advantages? Have these successes induced us 

5 to alter our mind ; as thinking the season of victory not the 
time for treating with honour or advantage? Whatever 
changes have happened in the national character, it can 
scarcely be our wish, that terms of accommodation never 
should be proposed to our enemy, except when they must 

lo be attributed solely to our fears. It has happened, let me 
say unfortunately, that we read of his Majesty's commission 
for making peace, and his troops evacuating his last town 
in the thirteen colonies, at the same hour and in the same 
gazette.^ It was still more unfortunate, that no commission 

15 went to America to settle the troubles there, until several 
months after an act had been passed to put the colonies out 
of the protection of this government, and to divide their 
trading property, without a possibility of restitution, as spoil 
among the seamen of the navy. The most abject submission 

20 on the part of the colonies could not redeem them. There 
was no man on that whole continent, or within three thou- 
sand miles of it, qualified by law to follow allegiance with 
protection, or submission with pardon. A proceeding of this 
kind has no example in history. Independency, and inde- 

25 pendency with an enmity, (which putting ourselves out of 
the question, would be called natural and much provoked,) 
was the inevitable consequence. How this came to pass, 
the nation may be one day in an humour to inquire. 

All the attempts made this session to give fuller powers of 

30 peace to the commanders in America, were stifled by the 
fatal confidence of victory, and the wild hopes of uncon- 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 199 

ditional submission. There was a moment favourable to the 
king's arms, when if any powers of concession had existed 
on the other side of the x'Vtlantic, even after all our errors, 
peace in all probability might have been restored.-^ But 
calamity is unhappily the usual season of reflection ; and 5 
the pride of men will not often suffer reason to have any 
scope until it can be no longer of service. 

I have always wished, that as the dispute had its apparent 
origin from things done in parliament, and as the acts passed 
there had provoked the war, that the foundations of peace 10 
should be laid in parliament also. I have been astonished 
to find, that those, whose zeal for the dignity of our body 
was so hot as to light up the flames of civil war, should even 
publicly declare, that these delicate points ought to be wholly 
left to the crown. Poorly as I may be thought affected to 15 
the authority of parliament, I shall never admit that our 
constitutional rights can ever become a matter of ministerial 
negotiation. 

I am charged with being an American. If warm affection 
towards those over whom I claim any share of authority be 20 
a crime, I am guilty of this charge. But I do assure you, 
(and they who know me publicly and privately will bear wit- 
ness to me,) that if ever one man lived more zealous than 
another for the supremacy of parliament, and the rights of 
this imperial crown, it was myself. Many others indeed 25 
might be more knowing in the extent of the foundation of 
these rights. I do not pretend to be an antiquary, a lawyer, 
or qualified for the chair of professor in metaphysics. I 
never ventured to put your solid interests upon speculative 
grounds.^ My having constantly declined to do so has been 30 
attributed to my incapacity for such disquisitions ; and I am 



200 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 1 

inclined to believe it is partly the cause. I never shall be 
ashamed to confess, that where I am ignorant I am diffident. 
I am indeed not very solicitous to clear myself of this imputed 
incapacity ; because men, even less conversant than I am in 

5 this kind of subtleties, and placed in stations to which I ought 
not to aspire, have, by the mere force of civil discretion, often 
conducted the affairs of great nations with distinguished 
felicity and glory. 

When I first came into a public trust, I found your parlia- 

10 ment in possession of an unlimited legislative power over the 
colonies.^ I could not open the statute book without seeing 
the actual exercise of it, more or less, in all cases what- 
soever. This possession passed with me for a title. It does 
so in all human affairs. No man examines into the defects 

15 of his title to his paternal estate, or to his established gov- 
ernment. Indeed common sense taught me, that a legisla- 
tive authority, not actually limited by the express terms of 

• its foundation, or by its own subsequent acts, cannot have 
its powers parcelled out by argumentative distinctions, so as 

20 to enable us to say, that here they can, and there they can- 
not, bind. Nobody was so obhging as to produce to me 
any record of such distinctions, by compact or otherwise, 
either at the successive formation of the several colonies, or 
during the existence of any of them. If any gentlemen 

25 were able to see how one power could be given up (merely 
on abstract reasoning) without giving up the rest, I can only 
say, that they saw farther than I could ; nor did I ever pre- 
sume to condemn any one for being clear-sighted, when I 
was blind. I praise the penetration and learning ; and hope 

30 that their practice has been correspondent to their theory. 
I had indeed very earnest wishes to keep the whole body 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 201 

of this authority perfect and entire as I found it : and to 
keep it so, not for our advantage solely ; but principally for 
the sake of those, on whose account all just authority exists ; 
I mean the people to be governed. For I thought I saw, 
that many cases might well happen, in which the exercise of 5 
every power comprehended in the broadest idea of legisla- 
ture, might become, in its time and circumstances, not a Kttle 
expedient for the peace and union of the colonies amongst 
themselves, as well as for their perfect harmony with Great 
Britain. Thinking so, (perhaps erroneously,) but being hon- 10 
estly of that opinion, I was at the same time very sure, that 
the authority, of which I was so jealous, could not under the 
actual circumstances of our plantations be at all preserved 
in any of its members, but by the greatest reserve in its 
application; particularly in those delicate points, in which 15 
the feelings of mankind are the most irritable. They who 
thought otherwise, have found a few more difficulties in their 
work than (I hope) they were thoroughly aware of, when 
they undertook the present business. I must beg leave to 
observe, that it is not only the invidious branch of taxation 20 
that will be resisted, but that no other given part of legisla- 
tive rights can be exercised, without regard to the general 
opinion of those who are to be governed. That general 
opinion is the vehicle and organ of legislative omnipotence. 
Without this, it may be a theory to entertain the mind, but 25 
it is nothing in the direction of affairs. The completeness 
of the legislative authority of parliament over this kingdom 
is not questioned ; and yet many things indubitably included 
in the abstract idea of that power, and which carry no abso- 
lute injustice in themselves, yet being contrary to the opin- 30 
ions and feeUngs of the people, can as Uttle be exercised, as 



202 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

if parliament in that case had been possessed of no right at 
all. I see no abstract reason, which can be given, why the 
same power, which made and repealed the High-Commission 
Court and the Star-Chamber, might not revive them again ;^ 

5 and these courts, warned by their former fate, might possi- 
bly exercise their powers with some degree of justice. But 
the madness would be as unquestionable, as the competence 
of that parliament which should attempt such things. If 
anything can be supposed out of the power of human legis- 

10 lature, it is religion : I admit, however, that the established 
religion of this country has been three or four times altered 
by act of parliament ; and therefore that a statute binds 
even in that case. But we may very safely affirm, that, not- 
withstanding this apparent omnipotence, it would be now 

15 found as impossible for king and parhament to alter the 
established religion of this country, as it was to King James 
alone, when he attempted to make such an alteration without 
a parliament. In effect, to follow, not to force the public 
inclination ; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, 

20 and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the commu- 
nity, is the true end of legislature. 

It is so with regard to the exercise of all the powers which 
our constitution knows in any of its parts, and indeed to the 
substantial existence of any of the parts themselves. The 

25 king's negative to bills is one of the most indisputed of the 
royal prerogatives ; and it extends to all cases whatsoever. 
I am far from certain, that if several laws which I know had 
fallen under the stroke of that sceptre, that the public would 
have had a very heavy loss. But it is not the propriety of 

30 the exercise which is in question. The exercise itself is 
wisely forborne. Its repose may be the preservation of its 



\ 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA, 203 

existence ; and its existence may be the means of saving 
the constitution itself, on an occasion worthy of bringing it 
forth. As the disputants, whose accurate and logical rea- 
sonings have brought us into our present condition, think it 
absurd, that powers or members of any constitution should 5 
exist, rarely or never to be exercised, I hope I shall be ex- 
cused in mentioning another instance, that is material. We 
know, that the Convocation of the Clergy ^ had formerly been 
called, and sat with nearly as much regularity to business as 
parliament itself. It is now called for form only. It sits 10 
for the purpose of making some polite ecclesiastical compli- 
ments to the king ; and, when that grace is said, retires and 
is heard of no more. It is however a part of the constitution, 
and may be called out into act and energy, whenever there 
is occasion ; and whenever those, who conjure up that spirit, 15 
will choose to abide the consequences. It is wise to permit 
its legal existence ; it is much wiser to continue it a legal 
existence only. So truly has prudence (constituted as the 
god of this lower world) the entire dominion over every 
exercise of power committed into its hands ; and yet I have 20 
lived to see prudence and conformity to circumstances wholly 
set at nought in our late controversies, and treated as if they 
were the most contemptible and irrational of all things. I 
have heard it a hundred times very gravely alleged, that in 
order to keep power in wind, it was necessary, by prefer- 25 
ence, to exert it in those very points in which it was most 
likely to be resisted, and the least likely to be productive of 
any advantage. 

These were the considerations, gentlemen, which led me 
early to think, that, in the comprehensive dominion which 30 
the Divine Providence had put into our hands, instead of 



204 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

troubling our understandings with speculations concerning 
the unity of empire, and the identity or distinction of legis- 
lative powers, and inflaming our passions with the heat and 
pride of controversy, it was our duty, in all soberness, to 

5 conform our government to the character and circumstances 
of the several people who composed this mighty and strangely 
diversified mass. I never was wild enough to conceive, that 
one method would serve for the whole ; that the natives of 
Hindostan and those of Virginia could be ordered in the 

lo same manner ; or that the Cutchery court ^ and the grand 
jury of Salem could be regulated on a similar plan. I was 
persuaded that government was a practical thing, made for 
the happiness of mankind, and not to furnish out a spectacle 
of uniformity, to gratify the schemes of visionary politicians. 

15 Our business was to rule, not to wrangle ; and it would have 
been a poor compensation that we had triumphed in a dis- 
pute, whilst we lost an empire. 

If there be one fact in the world perfectly clear it is this : 
"That the disposition of' the people of America is wholly 

20 averse to any other than a free government;" and this is 
indication enough to any honest statesman, how he ought to 
adapt whatever power he finds in his hands to their case. 
If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that, for 
any practical purpose, it is what the people think so ; and 

25 that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent 
judges of this matter. If they practically allow me a greater 
degree of authority over them than is consistent with any 
correct ideas of perfect freedom, I ought to thank them for 
so great a trust, and not to endeavour to prove from thence, 

30 that they have reasoned amiss, and that having gone so far, 
by analogy, they must hereafter have no enjoyment but by 
my pleasure. 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 205 

If we had seen this done by any others, we should have 
concluded them far gone in madness. It is melancholy as 
well as ridiculous, to observe the kind of reasoning with 
which the public has been amused, in order to divert our 
minds from the common sense of our American policy. 5 
There are people, who have split and anatomized the doc- 
trine of free government, as if it were an abstract question 
concerning metaphysical liberty and necessity ; and not a 
matter of moral prudence and natural feeling. They have 
disputed, whether liberty be a positive or a negative idea ; 10 
whether it does not consist in being governed by laws, with- 
out considering what are the laws, or who are the makers ; 
whether man has any rights by nature ; and whether all the 
property he enjoys be not the alms of his government, and 
his life itself their favour and indulgence. Others, corrupt- 15 
ing religion, as these have perverted philosophy, contend, 
that Christians are redeemed into captivity ; and the blood 
of the Saviour of mankind has been shed to make them 
the slaves of a few proud and insolent sinners. These 
shocking extremes provoking to extremes of another kind, 20 
speculations are let loose as destructive to all authority, as 
the former are to all freedom ; and every government is 
called tyranny and usurpation which is not formed on their 
fancies. In this manner the stirrers-up of this contention, 
not satisfied with distracting our dependencies and filling 25 
them with blood and slaughter, are corrupting our under- 
standings : they are endeavouring to tear up, along with 
practical liberty, all the foundations of human society, all 
equity and justice, religion and order. 

Civil freedom, gentlemen, is not, as many have endeav- 30 
oured to persuade you, a thing that lies hid in the depth of 



206 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

abstruse science. It is a blessing and a benefit, not an 
abstract speculation ; and all the just reasoning that can be 
upon it is of so coarse a texture, as perfectly to suit the 
ordinary capacities of those who are to enjoy, and of those 

5 who are to defend it. Far from any resemblance to those 
propositions in geometry and metaphysics, which admit no 
medium, but must be true or false in all their latitude; 
social and civil freedom, like all other things in common life, 
are variously mixed and modified, enjoyed in very different 

10 degrees, and shaped into an infinite diversity of forms, ac- 
cording to the temper and circumstances of every commu- 
nity. The extreme of liberty (which is its abstract perfection, 
but its real fault) obtains nowhere, nor ought to obtain any- 
where. Because extremes, as we all know, in every point 

15 which relates either to our duties or satisfactions in Hfe, are 
destructive both to virtue and enjoyment.^ Liberty too must 
be limited in order to be possessed. The degree of restraint 
it is impossible in any case to settle precisely. But it ought 
to be the constant aim of every wise public council, to find 

20 out by cautious experiments, and rational, cool endeavours, 
v/ith how little, not how much, of this restraint, the com- 
munity can subsist. For liberty is a good to be improved, 
and not an evil to be lessened. It is not only a private 
blessing of the first order, but the vital spring and energy of 

25 the state itself, which has just so much Hfe and vigour as 
there is liberty in it. But whether liberty be advantageous 
or not, (for I know it is a fashion to decry the very prin- 
ciple,) none will dispute that peace is a blessing ; and peace 
must in the course of human affairs be frequently bought by 

30 some indulgence and toleration at least to liberty. For as 
the sabbath (though of Divine institution) was made for 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 207 

man, not man for the sabbath, government, which can claim 
no higher origin or authority, in its exercise at least, ought 
to conform to the exigences of the time, and the temper 
and character of the people, with whom it is concerned ; 
and not always to attempt violently to bend the people to 5 
their theories of subjection. The bulk of mankind on their 
part are not excessively curious concerning any theories, 
whilst they are really happy ; and one sure symptom of an 
ill-conducted state is the propensity of the people to resort 
to them. 10 

But when subjects, by a long course of such ill conduct, 
are once thoroughly inflamed, and the state itself violently 
distempered, the people must have some satisfaction to their 
feelings more solid than a sophistical speculation on law and 
government. Such was our situation ; and such a satisfac- 15 
tion was necessary to prevent recourse to arms ; it was 
necessary towards laying them down ; it will be necessary to 
prevent the taking them up again and again. Of what nature 
this satisfaction ought to be, I wish it had been the disposi- 
tion of parliament seriously to consider. It was certainly a 20 
deUberation that called for the exertion of all their wisdom. 

I am, and ever have been, deeply sensible of the difficulty 
of reconciling the strong presiding power, that is so useful 
towards the conservation of a vast, disconnected, infinitely 
diversified empire, with that liberty and safety of the prov- 25 
inces, which they must enjoy, (in opinion and practice at 
least,) or they will not be provinces at all. I know, and 
have long felt, the difficulty of reconciling the unwieldy 
haughtiness of a great ruling nation, habituated to command, 
pampered by enormous wealth, and confident from a long 30 
course of prosperity and victory, to the high spirit of free 



208 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

dependencies, animated with the first glow and activity of 
juvenile heat, and assuming to themselves, as their birth- 
right, some part of that very pride which oppresses them. 
They who perceive no difficulty in reconcihng these tem- 

5 pers, (which however to make peace must some way or other 
be reconciled,) are much above my capacity, or much below 
the magnitude of the business. Of one thing I am perfectly 
clear, that it is not by deciding the suit, but by compromis- 
ing the difference, that peace can be restored or kept. They 

10 who would put an end to such quarrels, by declaring roundly 
in favour of the whole demands of either party, have mis- 
taken, in my humble opinion, the office of a mediator. 

The war is now of full two years' standing ; the contro- 
versy, of many more. In different periods of the dispute, 

15 different methods of reconciliation were to be pursued. I 
mean to trouble you with a short state of things at the most 
important of these periods, in order to give you a more dis- 
tinct idea of our policy with regard to this most delicate of 
all objects. The colonies were from the beginning subject 

20 to the legislature of Great Britain, on principles which they 
never examined ; and we permitted to them many local 
privileges, without asking how they agreed with that legisla- 
tive authority. Modes of administration were formed in an 
insensible and very unsystematic manner. But they gradu- 

25 ally adapted themselves to the varying condition of things. — 
What was first a single kingdom, stretched into an empire ; 
and an imperial superintendency, of some kind or other, 
became necessary. Parliament, from a mere representative 
of the people, and a guardian of popular privileges for its 

30 own immediate constituents, grew into a mighty sovereign. 
Instead of being a control on the crown on its own behalf, 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA, 209 

it communicated a sort of strength to the royal authority ; 
which was wanted for the conservation of a new object, but 
which could not be safely trusted to the crown alone. On 
the other hand, the colonies, advancing by equal steps, and 
governed by the same necessity, had formed within them- 5 
selves, either by royal instruction or royal charter, assemblies 
so exceedingly resembling a parliament, in all their forms, 
functions, and powers, that it was impossible they should 
not imbibe some opinion of a similar authority.^ 

At the first designation of these assemblies, they were 10 
probably not intended for anything more, (nor perhaps did 
they think themselves much higher,) than the municipal cor- 
porations within this island, to which some at present love 
to compare them. But nothing in progression can rest on 
its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown 15 
man in the cradle of an infant. Therefore as the colonies 
prospered and increased to a numerous and mighty people, 
spreading over a very great tract of the globe ; it was natural 
that they should attribute to assemblies, so respectable in 
their formal constitution, some part of the dignity of the 20 
great nations which they represented. No longer tied to by- 
laws, these assemblies made acts of all sorts and in all cases 
whatsoever. They levied money, not for parochial purposes, 
but upon regular grants to the crown, following all the rules 
and principles of a parliament to which they approached 25 
every day more and more nearly. Those who think them- 
selves wiser than Providence, and stronger than the course 
of nature, may complain of all this variation, on the one side 
or the other, as their several humours and prejudices may 
lead them. But things could not be otherwise ; and English 30 
colonies must be had on these terms, or not had at all. In 



210 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

the mean time, neither party felt any inconvenience from 
this double legislature, to which they had been formed by 
imperceptible habits, and old custom, the great support of 
all the governments in the world. Though these two legis- 

5 latures were sometimes found perhaps performing the very 
same functions, they did not very grossly or systematically 
clash. In all likelihood this arose from mere neglect ; pos- 
sibly from the natural operation of things, which, left to 
themselves, generally fall into their proper order. But what- 

10 ever was the cause, it is certain that a regular revenue, by the 
authority of parliament, for the support of civil and military 
establishments, seems not to have been thought of until the 
colonies were too proud to submit, too strong to be forced, 
too enlightened not to see all the consequences which must 

15 arise from such a system. 

If ever this scheme of taxation was to be pushed against 
the inclinations of the people, it was evident that discussions 
must arise, which would let loose all the elements that com- 
posed this double constitution ; would show how much each 

20 of their members had departed from its original principles ; 

and would discover contradictions in each legislature, as 

well to its own first principles as to its relation to the other, 

very difficult, if not absolutely impossible, to be reconciled. 

Therefore at the first fatal opening of this contest, the 

25 wisest course seemed to be to put an end as soon as possi- 
ble to the immediate causes of the dispute ; and to quiet a 
discussion, not easily settled upon clear principles, and aris- 
ing from claims, which pride would permit neither party to 
abandon, by resorting as nearly as possible to the old, suc- 

30 cessful course. A mere repeal of the obnoxious tax, with a 
declaration of the legislative authority of this kingdom, was 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 211 

then fully sufficient to procure peace to both sides. Man is 
a creature of habit, and, the first breach being of very short 
continuance, the colonies fell back exactly into their ancient 
state. The congress has used an expression with regard to 
this pacification, which appears to me truly significant. After 5 
the repeal of the stamp act, " the colonies fell," says this 
assembly, " into their ancient state of unsuspecting confidence 
in the mother country.'' ^ This unsuspecting confidence is 
the true centre of gravity amongst mankind, about which all 
the parts are at rest. It is this tmsuspecting confidence that 10 
removes all difficulties, and reconciles all the contradictions 
which occur in the complexity of all ancient, puzzled, poHt- 
ical establishments. Happy are the rulers which have the 
secret of preserving it ! 

The whole empire has reason to remember, with eternal 15 
gratitude, the wisdom and temper of that man^ and his excel- 
lent associates, who, to recover this confidence, formed a 
plan of pacification in 1766. That plan, being built upon 
the nature of man, and the circumstances and habits of the 
two countries, and not on any visionary speculations, per- 20 
fectly answered its end, as long as it was thought proper 
to adhere to it. Without giving a rude shock to the dig- 
nity (well or ill understood) of this parliament, they gave per- 
fect content to our dependencies. Had it not been for the 
mediatorial spirit and talents of that great man, between 25 
such clashing pretensions and passions, we should then have 
rushed headlong (I know what I say) into the calamities of 
that civil war, in which, by departing from his system, we 
are at length involved ; and we should have been precipi- 
tated into that war, at a time when circumstances both at 3c 
home and abroad were far, very far, more unfavourable 



212 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

unto us than they were at the breaking out of the present 
troubles. 

I had the happiness of giving my first votes in parhament 
for their pacification. I was one of those ahuost unanimous 

5 members, who, in the necessary concessions of parhament, 
would as much as possible have preserved its authority, and 
respected its honour. I could not at once tear from my 
heart prejudices which were dear to me, and which bore a 
resemblance to virtue. I had then, and I have still, my 

10 partialities. What parhament gave up, I wished to be given 
as of grace, and favour, and affection, and not as a restitution 
of stolen goods. High dignity relented as it was soothed ; 
and a benignity from old acknowledged greatness had its 
full effect on our dependencies. Our unlimited declaration 

15 of legislative authority produced not a single murmur. If 
this undefined power has become odious since that time, and 
full of horror to the colonies, it is because the unsuspiciotis 
confidence is lost, and the parental affection, in the bosom of 
whose boundless authority they reposed their privileges, is 

20 become estranged and hostile. 

It will be asked, if such was then my opinion of the mode 
of pacification, how I came to be the very person who moved, 
not only for a repeal of all the late coercive statutes, but for 
mutilating, by a positive law, the entireness of the legislative 

25 power of parliament, and cutting off from it the whole right 
of taxation? I answer, because a different state of things 
requires a different conduct. When the dispute had gone to 
these last extremities, (which no man laboured more to pre- 
vent than I did,) the concessions which had satisfied in the 

30 beginning, could satisfy no longer ; because the violation of 
tacit faith required exphcit security. The same cause which 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 213 

has introduced all formal compacts and covenants among 
men made it necessary. I mean habits of soreness, jealousy, 
and distrust. I parted with it, as with a Hmb ; but as a limb 
to save the body ; and I would have parted with more, if 
more had been necessary ; anything rather than a fruitless, 5 
hopeless, unnatural civil war. This mode of yielding would, 
it is said, give way to independency, without a war. I am 
persuaded from the nature of things, and from every infor- 
mation, that it would have had a directly contrary effect. But 
if it had this effect, I confess that I should prefer independ- 10 
ency without war, to independency with it ; and I have so 
much trust in the inclinations and prejudices of mankind, 
and so little in anything else, that I should expect ten times 
more benefit to this kingdom from the affection of America, 
though under a separate estabhshment, than from her perfect 15 
submission to the crown and parliament, accompanied with 
her terror, disgust, and abhorrence. Bodies tied together 
by so unnatural a bond of union as mutual hatred, are only 
connected to their ruin. 

One hundred and ten respectable members of parliament 20 
voted for that concession. Many not present, when the 
motion was made, were of the sentiments of those who 
voted. I knew it would then have made peace. I am not 
without hopes that it would do so at present if it were 
adopted. No benefit, no revenue, could be lost by it ; some- 25 
thing might possibly be gained by its consequences. For 
be fully assured, that, of all the phantoms that ever deluded 
the fond hopes of a credulous world, a parliamentary revenue 
in the colonies is the most perfectly chimerical. Your break- 
ing them to any subjection, far from reheving your burthens, 30 
(the pretext for this war,) will never pay that mihtary force 



214 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

which will be kept up to the destruction of their liberties and 
yours. I risk nothing in this prophecy. 

Gentlemen, you have my opinion on the present state of 
public affairs. Mean as they may be in themselves, your 

5 partiality has made them of some importance. Without 
troubling myself to inquire whether I am under a formal 
obligation to it, I have a pleasure in accounting for my con- 
duct to my constituents. I feel warmly on this subject, and 
I express myself as I feel. If I presume to blame any 

lo pubhc proceeding, I cannot be supposed to be personal. 
Would to God I could be suspected of it. My fault might 
be greater, but the public calamity would be less extensive. 
If my conduct has not been able to make any impression on 
the warm part of that ancient and powerful party, with whose 

15 support I was not honoured at my election ; on my side, my 
respect, regard, and duty to them is not at all lessened. I 
owe the gentlemen who compose it my most humble ser- 
vice in everything. I hope that whenever any of them were 
pleased to command me, that they found me perfectly equal 

20 in my obedience. But flattery and friendship are very dif- 
ferent things ; and to mislead is not to serve them. I can- 
not purchase the favour of any man by concealing from him 
what I think his ruin. By the favour of my fellow-citizens, 
I am the representative of an honest, well-ordered, virtuous 

25 city ; of a people, who preserve more of the original English 
simplicity, and purity of manners, than perhaps any other. 
You possess among you several men and magistrates of large 
and cultivated understandings ; fit for any employment in any 
sphere. I do, to the best of my power, act so as to make 

30 myself worthy of so honourable a choice. If I were ready, 
on any call of my own vanity or interest, or to answer any 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 215 



election purpose, to forsake principles, (whatever they are,) 
which I had formed at a mature age, on full reflection, and 
which had been confirmed by long experience, I should for- 
feit the only thing which makes you pardon so many errors 
and imperfections in me. Not that I think it fit for any 
one to rely too much on his own understanding ; or to be 
filled with a presumption, not becoming a Christian man, in 
his own personal stability and rectitude. 

I hope I am far from that vain confidence, which almost 
always fails in trial. I know my weakness in all respects, as 
much at least as any enemy I have ; and I attempt to take 
security against it. The only method which has ever been 
found effectual to preserve any man against the corruption of 
nature and example, is an habit of life and communication 
of counsels with the most virtuous and public-spirited men 
of the age you live in. Such a society cannot be kept with- 
out advantage, or deserted without shame. For this rule of 
conduct I may be called in reproach d, party man; but I am 
little affected with such aspersions. In the way which they 
call party, I worship the constitution of your fathers ; and I 
shall never blush for my political company. All reverence 
to honour, airidea of what it is, will be lost out of the world, 
before it can be imputed as a fault to any man, that he has 
been closely connected with those incomparable persons, 
living and dead, with whom for eleven years I have constantly 
thought and acted. If I have wandered out of the paths of 
rectitude into those of interested faction, it was in company 
with the Saviles, the Dowdeswells, the Wentworths, the Ben- 
tincks ; ^ with the Lenoxes, the Manchesters, the Keppels, 
the Saunderses ; with the temperate, permanent, hereditary 
virtue of the whole House of Cavendish ; ^ names, among 



25 



30 



216 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

which, some have extended your fame and empire in arms, 
and all have fought the battle of your liberties in fields not 
less glorious. — These, and many more like these, grafting 
public principles on private honour, have redeemed the pres- 

5 ent age, and would have adorned the most splendid period 
in your history. Where could any man, conscious of his 
own inability to act alone, and willing to act as he ought to 
do, have arranged himself better? If any one thinks this 
kind of society to be taken up as the best method of gratify- 

10 ing low, personal pride, or ambitious interest, he is mistaken ; 
and he knows nothing of the world. 

Preferring this connexion, I do not mean to detract in 
the shghtest degree from others. There are some of those, 
whom I admire at something of a greater distance, with 

15 whom I have had the happiness also perfectly to agree, in 
almost all the particulars, in which I have differed with some 
successive administrations ; and they are such, as it never 
can be reputable to any government to reckon among its 
enemies. I hope there are none of you corrupted with the 

20 doctrine taught by wicked men for the worst purposes, and 
received by the malignant credulity of envy and ignorance, 
which is, that the men who act upon the pubHc stage are all 
alike ; all equally corrupt ; all influenced by no other views 
than the sordid lure of salary and pension. The thing I 

25 know by experience to be false. Never expecting to find 
perfection in men, and not looking for Divine attributes in 
created beings, in my commerce with my contemporaries, I 
have found much human virtue. I have seen not a little 
pubHc spirit ; a real subordination of interest to duty ; and 

30 a decent and regulated sensibility to honest fame and repu- 
tation. The age unquestionably produces (whether in a 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 1Y1 

greater or less nuraber than former times, I know not) 
daring profligates, and insidious hypocrites. What then? 
Am I not to avail myself of whatever good is to be found 
in the world, because of the mixture of evil that will always 
be in it? The smallness of the quantity in currency only 5 
heightens the value. They who raise suspicions on the 
good on account of the behaviour of ill men, are of the 
party of the latter. The common cant is no justification for 
taking this party. I have been deceived, say they, by Titius 
and McEviiis ; I have been the dupe of this pretender or of 10 
that mountebank; and I can trust appearances no longer. 
But my credulity and want of discernment cannot, as I 
conceive, amount to a fair presumption against any man's 
integrity. A conscientious person would rather doubt his 
own judgment, than condemn his species. He would say, I 15 
have observed without attention, or judged upon erroneous 
maxims ; I trusted to profession, when I ought to have 
attended to conduct. Such a man will grow wise, not ma- 
lignant, by his acquaintance with the world. But he that 
accuses all mankind of corruption, ought to remember that 20 
he is sure to convict only one. In truth I should much 
rather admit those, whom at any time I have disrelished the 
most, to be patterns of perfection, than seek a consolation to 
my own unworthiness, in a general communion of depravity 
with all about me. 25 

That this ill-natured doctrine should be preached by the 
missionaries of a court, I do not wonder. It answers their 
purpose. But that it should be heard among those who pre- 
tend to be strong assertors of liberty, is not only surprising, 
but hardly natural. This moral levelling is a se7'vile ^principle. 30 
It leads to practical passive obedience far better than all the 



218 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

doctrines which the pHant accommodation of theology to 
power has ever produced. It cuts up by the roots, not only 
all idea of forcible resistance, but even of civil opposition. 
It disposes men to an abject submission, not by opinion, 

5 which may be shaken by argument or altered by passion, 
but by the strong ties of pubhc and private interest. For if 
all men who act in a public situation are equally selfish, cor- 
rupt, and venal, what reason can be given for desiring any 
sort of change, which, besides the evils which must attend 

lo all changes, can be productive of no possible advantage? 
The active men in the state are true samples of the mass. 
If they are universally depraved, the commonwealth itself is 
not sound. We may amuse ourselves with talking as much 
as we please of the virtue of middle or humble life ; that is, 

15 we may place our confidence in the virtue of those who 
have never been tried. But if the persons who are continu- 
ally emerging out of that sphere, be no better than those 
whom birth has placed above it, what hopes are there in the 
remainder of the body, which is to furnish the perpetual suc- 

20 cession of the state ? All who have ever written on govern- 
ment are unanimous, that among a people generally corrupt, 
liberty cannot long exist. And indeed how is it possible ? 
when those who are to make the laws, to guard, to enforce, or 
to obey them, are, by a tacit confederacy of manners, indis- 

25 posed to the spirit of all generous and noble institutions. 

I am aware that the age is not what we all wish. But I 
am sure, that the only means of checking its precipitate 
degeneracy, is heartily to concur with whatever is the best 
in our time : and to have some more correct standard of 

30 judging what that best is, than the transient and uncertain 
favour of a court. If once we are able to find, and can pre- 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA 219 

vail on ourselves to strengthen, an union of such men, what- 
ever accidentally becomes indisposed to ill-exercised power, 
even by the ordinary operation of human passions, must join 
with that society, and cannot long be joined without in some 
degree assimilating to it. Virtue will catch as well as vice 5 
by contact ; and the public stock of honest, manly principle 
will daily accumulate. We are not too nicely to scrutinize 
motives as long as action is irreproachable. It is enough 
(and for a worthy man perhaps too much) to deal out its 
infamy to convicted guilt and declared apostasy. 10 

This, gentlemen, has been from the beginning the rule of 
my conduct ; and I mean to continue it, as long as such a 
body as I have described can by any possibihty be kept 
together; for I should think it the most dreadful of all 
offences, not only towards the present generation, but to all 15 
the future, if I were to do anything which could make the 
minutest breach in this great conservatory of free principles. 
Those who perhaps have the same intentions, but are sepa- 
rated by some little political animosities, will I hope discern 
at last, how little conducive it is to any rational purpose, to 20 
lower its reputation. For my part, gentlemen, from much 
experience, from no litde thinking, and from comparing a 
great variety of things, I am thoroughly persuaded, that the 
last hopes of preserving the spirit of the English constitution, 
or of reuniting the dissipated members of the English race 25 
upon a common plan of tranquillity and liberty, does entirely 
depend on their firm and lasting union ; and above all, on 
their keeping themselves from that despair, which is so very 
apt to fall on those, whom a violence of character and a 
mixture of ambitious views do not support through a long, 30 
painful, and unsuccessful struggle. 



220 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 

There never, gentlemen, was a period in which the sted- 
fastness of some men has been put to so sore a trial. It is 
not very difficult for well-formed minds to abandon their 
interest ; but the separation of fame and virtue is a harsh 

5 divorce.^ Liberty is in danger of being made unpopular to 
Englishmen. Contending for an imaginary power, we begin 
to acquire the spirit of domination, and to lose the relish of 
honest equality. The principles of our forefathers become 
suspected to us, because we see them animating the present 

10 opposition of our children. The faults which grow out of 
the luxuriance of freedom appear much more shocking to 
us than the base vices which are generated from the rank- 
ness of servitude. Accordingly the least resistance to power 
appears more inexcusable in our eyes than the greatest 

15 abuses of authority. All dread of a standing military force 
is looked upon as a superstitious panic. All shame of call- 
ing in foreigners and savages in a civil contest is worn off. 
We grow indifferent to the consequences inevitable to our- 
selves from the plan of ruling half the empire by a mercenary 

20 sword. We are taught to believe, that a desire of domineer- 
ing over our countrymen is love to our country ; that those 
who hate civil war abate rebellion, and that the amiable and 
conciUatory virtues of lenity, moderation, and tenderness to 
the privileges of those who depend on this kingdom, are a 

25 sort of treason to the state. 

It is impossible that we should remain long in a situation, 
which breeds such notions and dispositions, without some 
great alteration in the national character. Those ingenuous 
and feehng minds who are so fortified against all other 

30 things, and so unarmed to whatever approaches in the shape 
of disgrace, finding these principles, which they considered 



ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. Ill 

as sure means of honour, to be grown into disrepute, will 
retire disheartened and disgusted. Those of a more robust 
make, the bold, able, ambitious men, who pay some of their 
court to power through the people, and substitute the voice 
of transient opinion in the place of true glory, will give in to 5 
the general mode ; and those superior understandings which 
ought to correct vulgar prejudice, will confirm and aggravate 
its errors. Many things have been long operating towards 
a gradual change in our principles. But this American war 
has done more in a very few years, than all the other causes 10 
could have effected in a century. It is therefore not on its 
own separate account, but because of its attendant circum- 
stances, that I consider its continuance, or its ending in any 
way but that of an honourable and liberal accommodation, 
as the greatest evils which can befall us. For that reason 15 
I have troubled you with this long letter. For that reason I 
entreat you again and again, neither to be persuaded, shamed, 
or frighted out of the principles that have hitherto led so 
many of you to abhor the war, its cause, and its consequences. 
Let us not be among the first who renounce the maxims of 20 
our forefathers. 

I have the honour to be, gentlemen, your most obedient 
and faithful humble servant, 

Edmund Burke. 

Beaconsfield, April 3, 1777. 25 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 

1 729-1 797. 

Born in Dublin, January, 1729. 

Early Education. 

Enters Dublin University. 

Law Studies at Middle Temple. 

Early Writings. 

In Ireland with Hamilton. 

Secretary to J^ord Rockingham. 

Returned to Parliament from Wendover, 1765. 

Purchase of Beaconsfield. 

Agent for New York. 

Visits France. 

Attitude toward America. 

Returned to Parliament from Bristol, October, 1774. 

Affairs of the Catholics. 

American War. 

Returned to Parliament from Malton, 1 780. 

Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. 

Economical Reform. 

Affairs in India. 

French Revolution. 

Retirement from Public Life, 1794. 

His Son, Richard, succeeds him as Member for Malton. 

Sudden death of his Son. 

Letter to a Noble Lord. 

Death, 1797. 



222 



MINISTRIES DURING BURKE'S POLITICAL LIFE. 

Rockingham Ministry 1765 

Chatham Ministry 1766 

Grafton Ministry 1768 

North Ministry 1770 

Rockingham Ministry 1 782 

Shelburne Ministry 1782 

Coalition Ministry 1783 

Pitt Ministry 1784 



A GROUP OF BURKE'S LITERARY FRIENDS. 



J Oliver Goldsmith. George Crabbe. 

David Garrick. Edward Gibbon. 

I Samuel Johnson. R. B. Sheridan. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds. Benjamin Franklin. 



223 



SCHEME FOR ANALYSIS OF STYLE. 



Divisions of Style. 

The Scientific. — " Ministers to our instinct for Knowledge." 
The Poetic. — " Ministers to our instinct for Conduct and 
Beauty." 

Elements of Style. 

Vocabulary. 
The Sentence. 
Figures of Speech. 
The Paragraph. 

Qualities of Style. 

Intellectual. — Simplicity. — Clearness. 

( Sublimity. 
Impassioned. — Force \ Pathos. 
y Irony. 

( Euphony. 
Artistic. — Beauty \ Rhythm. 

( Cadence. 

Processes. 



Description. 
Narration. 
Exposition. 
Persuasion. 

224 



NOTES. 



SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 

The real significance of the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 was 
destroyed by the passage of the Declaratory Act, in which it was main- 
tained that the British government had the right to bind the colonies in all 
cases whatsoever. In 1767 the ministry formed a new scheme of taxation, 
and imposed a duty upon glass, paper, paints, and tea. This caused so 
much agitation in the colonies that Parliament (1770) decided to remove 
all the impositions except that upon tea. But the Americans were not to 
be caught in such a trap, and accordingly the tea was not allowed to be 
landed. This resistance brought down a message from the throne, the 
result of which was the Boston Port Bill and the bill for regulating the 
Province of Massachusetts Bay. General Gage was commissioned to pro- 
ceed to Massachusetts and enforce submission. 

Amid the passion and frenzy of these times was heard the calm, clear 
voice of Burke, as he uttered the famous sentence, "The honourable 
gentleman has asked, * Should not America belong to this country? ' If 
we have equity, wisdom, and justice, it will belong to this country; if we 
have not, it will not belong to this country." 

It was in connection with this subject that Mr. Rose Fuller, member for 
Rye, made the following motion, on April 19, 1774: Moved, "That an act 
made in the seventh year of the reign of his present Majesty, entituled An 
act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in 
America; for allowing a drawback of the duties of customs upon the 
exportation from this kingdom of coffee and cocoanuts; of the produce of 
the said colonies or plantations; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable 
on china earthenware exported to America; and for more effectually pre- 

225 



226 NOTES. 

venting the clandestine running of goods in the said colonies and planta- 
tions," might be read. 

And the same being read, he moved, " That this House will, upon the 
day sevennight, resolve itself into a committee of the whole House to take 
into consideration the duty of -^d. per pound weight upon tea, payable in 
all His Majesties dominions in America, imposed by the said act, and also 
the appropriation of said duty." 

The drawback alluded to above was granted in the interest of the East 
India Company, which desired free exportation in order to relieve its over- 
stocked warehouses, and also to bribe the colonists to pay the 3</. per 
pound on the tea, which George IH. declared was levied for the purpose 
of keeping up the right of imperial taxation. 

"When the news came that the tea upon which the royal prerogative 
was based had been steeped in Massachusetts Bay, the Privy Council was 
considering the petition of Massachusetts for the removal of the Governor 
and Chief Justice. The venerable Dr. Franklin was present to represent 
the petitioners, and was openly insulted by the solicitor-general. Burke 
and Dr. Priestly, who witnessed the indignity, were greatly grieved. Cf. 
Bancroft, HI., Ch. XXIIL, and engraving, "Franklin at the Court of St. 
James." 

On Mr. Fuller's motion to repeal the 3^. tax there was a long list of 
speakers in opposition, the last being Charles Wolfran Cornwall, one of 
the lords of the treasury, and to him Burke replied. 

Page 1, 1. i. i. Cornwall, member for Grampound. 

Line 12. 2. This exordium is most admirable when viewed in the light 
of the circumstances attending the debate. So much time had been con- 
sum.ed by the previous speakers that the tired members had betaken them- 
selves to the lunch-rooms. Burke had not completed these few ringing 
sentences before they came back crowding the lobbies and staircases; 
while the American agents in the galleries were in great glee at the pros- 
pect of seeing the ministry severely scourged. 

L. 21. 3. Previous to this time Cornwall had been opposed to the min- 
.istry in its dealings with America. He had deserted Burke's party for a 
position in the treasury bench. Cf. Chatham Correspondence^ Vol. IV. 

P. 2, 1. 20. I. To this request of Cornwall, Burke accedes in this speech, 
and gives a complete history of principles of American taxation. 



ON TAXATION. 227 

P. 3, 1. 8. I. " I wish only to pursue the present expediency of the 
measure," Cornwall had said. 

P. 4, 1. 14. I. Probably the colonies would not have made any opposi- 
tion to duties imposed for the regulation of trade. 

P. 5, 1. 15. I. Lord North, Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

P. 6, 1. 22. I. Lord North. 

P. 8, 1. I. I. The circular letter from Lord Hillsborough, secretary for 
the colonies, to the colonial governors concerning the repeal of some of 
the taxes levied in the Act of 1767. 

L. 22. 2. The United States took nearly one-third of the lead exported. 
— Payne. 

P. 9, 1. 17. I. Burke's career as a statesman seems to have been an 
illustration of success, ** through large and liberal ideas." 

P. 10, 1. 9. I. Cf. History of the East India Company. 

L. 12. 2. The commerce of the East with Great Britain was wholly in 
the hands of the company. 

L. 14. 3. The company had agreed to pay large amounts to the govern- 
ment for its privileges; and while its servants became wealthy, the com- 
pany itself was forced to beg. Cf. Fox's India Bill. 

L. 18. 4. The company was obliged to keep a great supply of tea in 
its warehouses. — Payne. 

L. 24. 5. In April, 1772, a committee was appointed to make inquiries 
into the affairs of the company, but had not produced any good results. 

P. 12, 1. 2. I. When a home manufacture was subject to duty and was 
exported, the duty was drawn back. When foreign goods were brought 
into the country to be exported, the duty was often remitted. 

L. 13. 2. Virgil's yEneid, VI., 1. 726-7. 

P. 14, 1. 19. I. February, 1769. The original purpose of this act was 
to provide for the trial in England of those who had committed crimes at 
sea. Cf. Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol. 

P. 17, 1. 14. I. The assembly of Virginia replied to the speech of the 
governor. Lord Botetourt, as follows : " No, my Lord ; we are sure our 
most gracious sovereign, under whatever changes may happen in his con- 
fidential servants, will remain immutable in the ways of truth and justice, 
and that he is incapable of deceiving his faithful subjects. 

P. 18, 1. 14. I. Lord North. 

P. 21, 1. 28. I. The Isle of Man became an English possession, 1765.. 



228 NOTES. 

P. 23, 1. 28. I. "If any man had been accustomed to regard Mr. 
Burke as more of a rhetorician than a reasoner, let him turn back and 
study over the series of arguments contained in this first head." — Pro- 
fessor Goodrich. 

P. 24, 1. 2-^. I. Passed under Cromwell, 1651, and was designed to 
deprive the Dutch of the carrying trade, by prohibiting the importation 
into England, or any of her colonies, \n foreign vessels, of any commodi- 
ties not the growth of the respective countries in whose vessels they were 
imported. 

P. 26, 1. 9. I. Governor of Massachusetts Bay. 

P. 32, 1. 20. I. "This admirable sketch has one peculiarity which is 
highly characteristic of Mr. Burke. It does not so much describe the 
objective qualities of the man, as the formative principles of his character. 
The same also is true respecting the sketch of Charles Townsend which 
follows, and to some extent respecting the sketch of Lord Chatham." — 
Professor Goodrich. 

P. 34, 1. 7. I. English colonists had carried on trade in British manu- 
factures with France and Spain. This violated the letter of the Naviga- 
tion x\ct, and the accused were to be tried in the admiralty courts, and 
thus be deprived of trial by jury. 

L. 8. 2. The colonies had issued paper money when coin was withdrawn 
in course of trade with England. When their value as legal tender was 
destroyed by Grenville's act, much hardship was the result. 

L. 13. 3. In the war with France, the Colonies had paid toward the 
debt more than their share. 

P. 35, 1. 29. I. That Americans did object to the principle is shown by 
the fact that immediately after the passage of the act Massachusetts sent 
orders to her agent in England to resist any such innovations. Other 
colonies followed her example, and declared their opposition. 

P. 39, 1. II. I. Mr. Burke was secretary to Lord Rockingham in 

1765- 

P. 40, 1. 6. I. Mr. Charles Yorke accepted the office of Lord Chancellor 
in 1770, and was so severely criticised for his desertion that he committed 
suicide. 

P. 42, 1. 24. I. Mr. Dowdeswell. 

L. 25. 2. General Conway. 

P. 44, 1. 4. I. General Conway. 



ON TAXATION. 229 

P. 45, 1. II. I. Rockingham was in ill favor with the king because of 
his attempt to repeal the Stamp Act, and because he had not provided for 
the king's brothers. 

P. 46, 1. 17. 2. General Conway's actions had made this rebuke neces- 
sary. He had not kept his faith with the opposition; he was a deserter 
from the cause, and received as his pay the generalship of Jersey. 

P. 50, 1. 20. I. It was the deliberate plan of the English press, if not 
the pulpit, to break down the influence of the friends of America by repre- 
senting them as encouraging sedition. 

P. 54, 1. 31. I. Lucan, Pharsalia, Book IX., v. 202, referring to Pompey. 
Cf. Macaulay's Essay on Chatham. 

P. 56, 1. 4. I. Lord North and George Cooke, Esq., who were made joint 
paymasters on the removal of the Rockingham administration. 

P. 61, 1. 2. I. The delicacy with which Burke here treats the peculi- 
arities of Townsend will be appreciated on reading Walpole's Sketch, in 
which he says : " Townsend had almost every great talent, and every little 
quality. His vanity exceeded even his abilities." 

P. 62, 1. 15. I. When he moved his resolutions in regard to America, 
May, 1770. Cf. Bancroft, III., Ch. XXIX. 

P. 64, 1. 19. I. Mr. Fuller. 

P. 66, 1. 23. I. Lord Carmarthen, who, during the debate, said: "The 
Americans are our children, and how can they revolt againsjt their parents? 
If they are not free England is not free." 

P. 71, 1. 6. I. Lord North. 

L. 18, 2. Mr. Dowdeswell. 

Probably for breadth of grasp, clearness and cogency of reasoning, pro- 
found political wisdom, power of description, and biting sarcasm, together 
with originality and independence, this speech has never been surpassed. 
The scene in the Commons at its close was a memorable one. Lord John 
Townsend exclaimed, " Heavens ! what a man this is ! Where could he 
acquire such transcendent powers?" George Savile said that it was the 
greatest triumph within his memory. Colonel Barre said that if it was 
printed, he would nail it to every church door in the kingdom.' 

The speech was not printed until the close of the year, because the 
administration claimed that much of the trouble in America was due to 
the publication in England of writings hostile to the government. 

"On the publication of this speech," says MacKnight, "young men at 



230 NOTES. 

college, philosophers in their studies, and the better class of politicians 
became more than ever attracted to Burke." 

Mr. Bancroft says: "This speech was such as had never been heard in 
the British Parliament. The words fell from him as burning oracles; and 
while he spoke for America he seemed to prepare the way for renovating 
the constitution of England, yet it was not so." 

Mr. Fox followed Burke, and for the first time gave his voice and vote 
for the opposition. On the division just the number that had stood against 
the Stamp Act stood by Burke against four times as many for the admin- 
istration. 



SPEECH ON ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL. 

On the day upon which Parliament was considering the motion for repeal 
of the tax upon tea, the people of New York sent back the tea ship. 

The administration passed the penal measure, requiring all offenders 
indicted for crime in the colonies to be transported to England or to a 
British colony for trial. The bill legalizing the quartering of troops in 
Boston was passed. Burke solemnly renewed his protest against such 
recklessness and inhumanity. 

A measure for the government of Quebec followed; the purpose of this 
was to prevent the colonies from extending their territory. 

" As the fleets and armies of England," says Bancroft, " went forth to 
consolidate arbitrary power, the sound of war everywhere died away. 
Kings sat still in awe, and nations turned to watch the issue." 

Affairs in America were fast coming to a crisis. Revolution was at 
hand. Boston was sustained, and preparations were made for a general 
Congress at Philadelphia. France favored the cause of the colonies. In 
September, 1774, Congress assembled; and Patrick Henry sounded the 
note of war, when, in quoting Hawley, who had said, " After all, we must 
fight," said, "I am of that man's mind," Virginia nullified the Quebec 
act, and General Gage was finding that it would be no easy matter to en- 
force the regulating act. The thirteenth Parliament had been prorogued, 
and then suddenly dissolved. Burke was not to stand for Wendover again, 
because Lord Verney, who controlled the district, needed to dispose of it 
to one who could pay for the privilege. Accordingly the city of Bristol 



ON CONCILIATION. 231 

asked Burke to stand in place of Lord Clare, the previous member, who 
declined to be a candidate after the poll had been open two days. Burke 
was about to stand for Malton, but immediately drove to Bristol, and 
ascended the hustings, where he addressed the sheriffs and electors in this 
speech. Mr. Henry Cruger, a Bristol merchant, was his colleague, while 
Mr. Brickdale, one of the last members, was a competitor. 



SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 

During the poll each candidate personally solicited the confidence of 
the electors, and at its close, on the 3d of November, Burke was declared 
duly elected. 

The Whigs carried both candidates. Mr. Brickdale threatened to con- 
test, but never executed the threat. Cruger was the first to acknowledge 
his indebtedness to the electors, and expressed his willingness to be ruled 
by the wishes of his constituents; but Burke resolutely affirmed his right 
to act, not merely for Bristol, but for the English people. Cf. Webster's 
Reply to Hayne, for a similar principle by the great American Senator. 

Page 80, 1. 15. i. Mr. Brickdale had in a previous poll solicited the 
favor of these very freemen. 

SPEECH ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. "" 

At the opening of the fourteenth Parliament, Nov. 30, 1774, reports 
from New England showed that war was certain, unless speedy movements 
were made to crush the colonists. General Gage was instructed to act 
offensively, and Clinton and Burgoyne were appointed. Franklin vigor- 
ously urged conciliation, and on meeting with no encouragement, but the 
rather with insult, determined to return to America. On taking leave of 
Burke, he said, " I lament the separation between Great Britain and her 
colonies, but it is inevitable." Petitions from merchants from all parts of 
England were presented to Parliament for a reconciliation before trade 
was ruined, Bristol taking the lead under the guidance of Burke. 



232 NOTES. 

By this time Lords North and Chatham began to think that reconcilia- 
tion must be attempted in some form, and they had a bill passed to the 
effect that if any of the colonies would contribute to the common defence, 
the right of taxation would be suspended in that colony. The offer was 
spurned; and now came the opportunity for Burke and his party. After 
frequent consultations at the house of Lord Rockingham, on the day (22d) 
that Franklin was sailing out of the harbor at Portsmouth, Burke stood 
forth as the apostle of peace, and introduced his plan of reconcihation in 
this speech. ,-^ > . 

P. 85, 1. 10. I. On Feb. 10, 1775, Lord North presented an address 
from the king, asking for the augmentation of his forces, and then pro- 
posed the " Act to restrain the trade and commerce of the Provinces of 
Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, and Colonies of Connecticut and 
Rhode Island and Providence Plantation, in North America, to Great 
Britain, Ireland, and the British Islands of the West Indies; and to 
prohibit such provinces and colonies from carrying on any fishing on the 
banks of Newfoundland, and other places therein mentioned, under certain 
conditions and limitations." 

New England fishermen were to be excluded from a line of industry in 
which they excelled all nations. By this bill, at one swoop, thousands were 
to be reduced to beggary. Burke protested most indignantly. "The 
bread of the needy," he said, " is their life-blood. He who depriveth 
them of it is a man of blood." 

P. 86, 1. 28. I. In 1766, on the repeal of the Stamp Act by the Rock- 
ingham administration. 

P. 87, 1. 20. I. Mr. Rose Fuller. Cf. Speech on American Taxation. 

P. 90, 1, 22. I. "That when the governor, council, or assembly, or 
general court, of any of his Majesty's provinces or colonies in America, 
shall propose to make provision, according to the condition, circumstances, 
and situation of such province or colony, for contributing their proportion 
to the common defence (such proportion to be raised under the authority 
of the general court or general assembly of such province or colony, and 
disposable by Parliament), and shall engage to make provision also for the 
support of the civil government and the administration of justice, in such 
province or colony, it will be proper, if such proposal shall be approved by 
his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliaf7ie7it, and for so long as such 
provision shall be made accordingly, to forbear, in respect of such province 



ON CONCILIATION. 233 

or colony, to levy any duty, tax, or assessment, or to impose any further 
duty, tax, or assessment, except such duties as it may be expedient to 
continue to levy or impose, for regulation of commerce; the net produce 
of the duties last mentioned to be carried to the account of such province 
or colony respectively." — Resolution moved by Lord North on the com- 
mittee; and agreed to by the House, 27th February, 1775. Lord North 
wore the badge of the Knight of the Garter. 

P. 91, 1. 5. I. The ministry had passed an address to the king in which 
they declared that Massachusetts was in rebellion, and urged his Majesty 
to take immediate action. 

P. 93, 1. 19. I. This is in Burke's best style. The comparison beauti- 
fully illustrates the idea, and justifies his assertion, that while " the dispute 
continues, the exaggeration ends." — Professor Goodrich. 

L. 26. 2. " De minimis von curat lex." 

P. 94, 1. 10. I. Mr. Glover, who had appeared at the bar in support of a 
petition from West Indian planters asking for peace with the colonies, 
because their commerce was in peril. 

P. 95, 1. II. I. Slave trade. 

2. The Spanish Colonies, in spite of the Act of Navigation, carried on 
trade with the West Indies. 

P. 97, 1. I. I. Burke's reasoning here seems prophetic when considered 
in the light of the latest statistics regarding the commerce between England 
and the United States. 

L. 15. 2. The quotation is from Virgil's fourth Eclogue, where the 
allusion is to the birth of a child by the sister of Augustus. 

L. 23. 3. Henry, created Lord Apsley and made chancellor in 177 1. 
*^ P. 98, 1. 17. I. Professor Goodrich questions the propriety of this pas- 
sage and the following one upon the fisheries, yet are they not the very 
top and crown of Burke's style ! 

P. 99, 1. 23. I. Alluding to the Roman daughter who, when her father 
was condemned to starve, obtained access to his cell, and nourished him 
from her own breasts. 

P. 100, 1. 9. I. A small constellation far to the south. 

2. Consult American Cyclopccdia, Art. " Falkland Islands." 

P. loi, 1. 3. I. Is it any wonder that such utterances as these caused 
Burke to be, charged with being an American? 

P. 103, 1. II. I. We see here the secret of Burke's richness of thought 



234 NOTES, 

It consisted, to a great extent, in his habit of viewing things in their causes 
or tracing them out in their results. Let the reader study these pages with 
reference to this fact. — Professor Goodrich. 

P. io6, 1. 4. I. Cf. Matthew Arnold's effective use of this phrase of 
Hooker's, in Culture and Autarchy. 

P. 107, 1. 10. I. Alluding to the partition of Poland by Austria, Prussia, 
and Russia, 1772, by which she lost her national independence. 

L. 18. 2. For illustration of this, compare the number of lawyers in the 
first and in the last Congress. 

P. 108, 1. 2. I. General Gage forbade the colonists from holding any 
town meetings after Aug. i, 1774. The colonists evaded the prohibition 
by adjourning over the ist, and thus meeting, but not under a call. 

L. 6. 2. Thurlow, the attorney-general. 

L. 13. 3. Cf. Bacon's Essay on Studies. 

L. 30. 4. Horace, Odes, Book IV,, i, " Ministrum fulminis alitem." 

P. 109, 1. 19. I. Compare this statement of Burke in regard to Mon- 
archies and Despotisms with Bryce's Analysis of the workings of the 
American Constitution. — Aviericaji Cominonwealtk, Vol. I., Part I., Ch. 

xxvni. 

P. no, 1. 12. I. Hamlet, Act I., Sc. V. 

P. 116, 1. 5. I. Juvenal, Sat. VIII. 

L. 31. 2. An illustration of what Matthew Arnold says of Burke: "He 
is so great because, almost alone in England, he brings thought to bear 
upon politics; he saturates politics with thought." 

P. 118, 1. 2. I. From one of Dryden's plays. 

L. 28. 2. For an exhibition of coarse and brutal treatment Professor 
Goodrich gives the following from Howell's State 'J rials, Vol. H. : " Coke : 
I will prove you the notoriest traitor that ever came to the bar. Raleigh : 
Your words cannot condemn me; my innocency is my defence. Coke: 
Thou art a monster. Thou hast an English face but a Spanish heart." 

P. 119, 1. 17. I. From the very significance of the term. 

P. 122, 1. 15. I. Burke has often been accused of too much refining in 
his speeches, but a careful study of his works will reveal the fact that he 
seldom anatomizes; he everywhere deals with broad principles, profound, 
permanent, fruitful. 

P. 123, 1. 3. I. Paradise Lost, II., 592-3. 

L. 19. 2. His statesmanship rises above petty maxims, such as men 



ON CONCILIATION. 235 

resort to who think that suspicion is the great law of life, and that the 
more advantages you can take of your neighbor, the better it is for your- 
self. — Maurice. 

P. 125, 1. 2. I. Mr. Rice. 

P. 126, 1. 4. I. By Dean Tucker. Cf. MacKnight, Vol. II., Ch. XXII., 
p. 115 ^/ seq. 

P. 128, 1. 16. I. The Witenagemote was the Parliament of the Anglo- 
Saxons. Cf. Stubb's Constitutional Hisiory, Vol. I., Ch. VI. 

P. 129, 1. 2. I. English settlers in Ireland after the invasion of Strong- 
bow kept themselves, within certain limits, distinct from the natives called 
the " Pale," They enjoyed English law while the natives were denied it. 
— Professor Goodrich. 

P. 130, 1. 9. I. Cf. Green's Short History of the English People^ Ch. 
IV. 

P. 132, 1. 12. I. Read the "Famous history of the revenue adventures 
of the Bold Baron North and the good Knight Probert upon the moun- 
tains of Venodotia," as so graphically given by Burke in his speech on 
Economical Reform. 

L. 22. 2. Horace, Ode to Aitgnstus CcEsar, Book I., 12. A comparison 
of the peaceful influence of Augustus to that of the twins Castor and 
Pollux upon storms at sea. 

P. 134, 1. 19. I. Cf. Burke's Speech on Economical Reform. 

P. 138, 1. 5. I. Horace, Sat., I., 2. 

L. II. 2. Ex. XX. 25. 
\ L. 18. 3. St. Paul, I Epis. to Cor. iv. 6, Revised Version, "That in us 
ye might learn not to go beyond the things which are written." 
"^ L. 19. 4. St. Paul, 2 Epis. to Tim. i. 13, Revised Version, "Hold the 
pattern of sound words." 

P. 141, 1. 21. I. Journals of the House, Vol. XXII. 

P. 142, 1. 2. I. Journals of the House, Vol. XXVII. 

L. II. 2. Ibid. 

L. 29. 3. It was claimed that the colonies could not legally. make grants 
to the Crown because it made the king independent of Parliament. Gren- 
ville and others were of this opinion. Hence Burke insists upon these 
precedents. — Professor Goodrich. 

P. 148, 1. 22. I. The solicitor-general informed Mr. Burke when the 
resolutions were separately moved that the grievance of the judges pat- 



236 NOTES, 

taking of the profits of the seizure had been redressed by office; accord- 
ingly the resolution was amended. 

P. 150, 1. 31. I. Othello, Act. III., Sc. V. 

P. 152, 1. 25. I. Lord North. 

P- I53> 1- 9- I- " Trial should be made with a worthless subject." 

L. 25. 2. Through committee. 

P. 156, 1. 14. I. A writ of commission for taxing lands. 

P. 158, 1. 12. I. Juvenal, Sat., I., 90. Alluding to the excess in gambling. 

P. 159, 1. 16. I. Paradise Lost, IV., 96-97. 

L. 19. 2. Paradise Lost, IV., 53. 

P. 161, 1. 4. I. I Kings viii. 44, 45; Dan. vi. 10. We see everywhere 
the results of Burke's hours with the poets. Dr. Earle, in his excellent 
work on English prose, says, " About the choice of reading there is a very 
important remark to be made. The writer of English prose should be 
conversant with English poets." 

L. 30. 2. Cf. Virgil, ^neid, VI., 726-727. 

P. 162, 1. 26, I. The call to prayer in the Roman Catholic Church. 

P. 163, 1. 7. I. Roman prayer. 

P. 164, 1. 17. I. The first four motions and the last had the previous 
question put to them. The others were negatived. 

On the day of the delivery of this speech strangers were shut out of the 
gallery, but the House was filled with members. Burke spoke for three 

hours. 

"Silence! hush! 

This is no trifler, no short-flighted wit, 
No stammerer of a minute, painfully 
Delivered. No ! the Orator hath yoked 
The Hours, like young Aurora, to bis car." 

The audience which he addressed was by a large majority strongly 
opposed to his ideas, yet such was the almost superhuman power of his 
genius and the might of the truths which he laid before them that the 
members were kindled to the highest heat of enthusiasm, and he took his 
seat amid loud and general applause from every class of politicians and 
from all parts of the House. 

Thurlow, the attorney-general, followed, and by an adroit appeal to the 
littleness of party feehng, brought two hundred and seventy members down 
to his own level of the selfish and the sordid. Only seventy-eight sup- 



ON AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 237 

ported Burke in his attempt to avert the horrors of a war between peoples 
of common blood, common language, and common ancestry. 

The speech was immediately published, — only a short time after the 
publication of his speech on Taxation, — and the two were eagerly studied 
by the people throughout the Empire, 

Chatham's Bill for reconciliation should be compared with these Reso- 
lutions of Burke. 

In this speech, says Dr. Goodrich, Burke took the standpoint of 
America, while in his speech on Taxation he took the standpoint of 
England. 



LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL, 

After the rejection of Burke's resolution, Parliament had but one more 
opportunity to voluntarily show pacific spirit. The General Assembly of 
New York, for which Burke was agent, had not formally joined the Con- 
tinental Congress, but preferred to remonstrate separately, and sent a peti- 
tion to the king, a memorial to the House of Commons, a representation 
to the lords in which the grievances of the colonies were recapitulated 
and redress requested. 

Burke moved that this complaint be received, but by a majority of three 
to one it was insolently refused. No sooner had the House rejected this 
than it heard that the war had begun. When the colonists were success- 
ful, Burke urged reconciliation; when they were met by reverses, he quite 
as strongly urged the same plan, but all to no purpose. He censured the 
University of Oxford for applauding when the colonists were defeated. 
When Lord North planned to starve them to submission, and to employ 
German mercenaries, he was indignant. When the colonies declared 
themselves independent of the mother country, he prophesied success. 
At last Burke and his friends, concluding that they might emphasize their 
opposition to the administration and assure the people of America that 
they could act as well as talk, withdrew from the deliberations of the 
House. Business was then rushed along, and Parliament seemed bound 
to commit suicide. Franklin was at the court of France, and this act of 
the colonies inflamed the administration and goaded it on to desperation. 
When the iniquitous bill for a suspension of the Habeas Corpus came up, 



238. NOTES. 

those who had withdrawn met at the house of Lord Rockingham, and 
some advised a return, but Lord Cavendish, the Duke pf Poland, and 
Burke dissented. Fox, Sir George Saville, and Dunning were present 
and opposed the bill. 

Burke's enemies at Bristol were making use of his secession to damage 
his prospects of a re-election, and as soon as the Habeas Corpus Bill was 
passed, he sent this letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, and through it he reached 
the whole British people and replied to the charges. He did not return 
to the House until April, 1777, when the King's Civil List Bill came up. 

For events intervening between the speech on Conciliation and the 
Letter, cf. MacKnight, Vols. II., Chs. XXII. and XXIIL ; Bancroft, 
Vols. IV. and V. 

P. 168, 1. 5. I. The Letter of Marque, by which the property of the 
colonists upon the sea was to become that of the captor. Thus it 
became a criminal offence for the colonists to engage in commerce. 

L. 10. 2. This famous statute, passed in 1679 and considered the bul- 
wark of liberty, was to be converted into an engine of oppression, to such 
extremes of desperation had the administration been driven. 

P. 169, 1. 26. I. In the rising of 1745 for the cause of Prince Charlie, 
this Scottish nobleman was captured and put to death. 

P. 170, 1. 6. I. Cf. note, page 168, line 5. 

L. 28. 2. The purpose of the old Statute of Henry the Eighth was to 
insure British offenders arrested in the colonies a trial on British soil. 
Cf. page 14, line 19, note. To apply it to the colonies was a direct inver- 
sion of its spirit. 

P. 171, 1. 31. I. A place of execution near London. 

P. 173, 1. 17. I. Brunswickers and Hessians. 

P. 175, 1. 9. I. To hear and determine. 

P. 179, 1. II, I. Cf. note introductory to this speech, and MacKnight, 
II., Ch. XXIIL, "The Secession." 

P. 180, 1. 12. I. These three bills, for Closing the Port, for Quartering 
Troops, and for Suspension of the Massachusetts Charter, were passed in 
the session of 1 774 and 1775. Cf. Bancroft, Vol. IV., V. 

P. 181, 1. 22. I. The French, who were feared lest they should assist 
the colonies. 

L. 26. 2. Cf. Bancroft, IV., Ch. XXIIL 

P. 182, 1. 16. I. Rahl and Kniphausen were commanders of the Ger- 



ON AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 239 

man mercenaries under General Howe. After the capture of Fort Wash- 
ington on the Hudson it was called Fort Kniphausen. 

L. 28. 2. Brunswickers and Hessians were hired by the administration. 
As the pay in Germany was not so large as that in England, the difference 
was paid to the respective rulers, — the Duke of Brunswick and the Land- 
grave of Hesse. Soldiers were impressed from the plough, the workshop, 
and the highway. Cf. Bancroft, IV., Ch. XXH. 

P. 185, 1. 9. I. After the victory of Howe at Long Island, the English 
people seemed beside themselves with pride, and hurled all manner of 
reproaches against the colonists. A general fast was proclaimed, and the 
king prayed for the rebels " as a Spanish inquisitor might be supposed to 
pray for the conversion of a miserable Jew at an auto-da-fe." 

P. 187, 1. 5. I. This assertion is most conclusively proved by the three 
publications in this volume. That Burke could have so thoroughly under- 
stood the position of the colonies, when at a distance of three thousand 
miles from them, seems almost incredible. 

P. 188, 1. 9. I. In December, 1776, Congress at Baltimore voted to 
"assure foreign courts that the Congress and people are determined to 
maintain their independence at all events." Treaties were to be made 
with Prussia, Vienna, and Tuscany, and an alliance was to be made with 
France and Spain. After the battle of Trenton, Lord George Germain 
said, "All our hopes are blasted." 

L. 26. 2. Up to the time of the battle of Trenton, Congress had left 
on its journals the suggestion that a reunion with Great Britain might still 
be possible. 

P. 190, 1. 14. I. Admiral Howe and his brother the General were 
appointed on a Commission of Peace, and had said that peace would be 
made within ten days after their arrival. They had power to grant free 
and general pardons, and promise " due consideration to all persons who 
should aid in restoring tranquillity." This declaration was sent, addressed 
to Washington as a private citizen, and he declined to receive it Congress 
said that Washington " acted with a dignity becoming his station." 

P. 191, 1. I. I. To Franklin Lord Howe said that his ambition was to 
prevent the commerce of America from passing to foreign nations, and 
Franklin replied, " It is painful to me to see you engaged in a war, the 
ground of which is * the necessity of preventing American trade from pass- 
ing into foreign channels.' " 



240 NOTES. 

L. 24. 2. "Every thicket will be an ambuscade of partisans; every 
stone-wall a hiding-place for sharpshooters; every swamp a fortress; the 
boundless woods an impracticable barrier; the farmer's house a garrison." 
— Bancroft. 

P. 196, 1. 6. I. Cf. Bancroft, IV., Chs. XTII., XXVIL, XXVIII. 

P. 197, 1. 6. I. An island of the East Indies, valuable for its production 
of spice. It has been the property of Portugal, Spain, Holland, and 
England. In 1622 the Dutch massacred the English settlers, and took 
possession of the island of which they had been deprived by the English 
in 1 61 5. In 1672, Charles II. persuaded Louis XIV. to join him in making 
war upon the Dutch. The English were not favorable to such an under- 
taking, and to excite them, Charles had the massacre acted upon the stage. 

P. 198, 1. 14. I. Cf. note, page 190, line 14. 

P. 199, 1. 4. I. Cf. note, page 18S, line 26. 

L. 30. 2. This position of Burke should be emphasized, when so many 
make use of the caricature in Goldsmith's Retaliation as if it were a 
characterization. 

P. 200, 1. II. I. Cf. De Tocqueville, Defnocracy in America, Vol. I., 
Ch. II. 

P. 202, 1. 4. I. Estal)lished in 1584, the one having jurisdiction over 
men's consciences, the other over their actions, became so hateful to the 
people, that they were repealed in 1641. 

P. 203, 1. 8. I. The Ancient Legislature of the Church of England, 
having an upper and a lower house. 

P. 204, 1. 10. I. Court of a province on the coast of Hindostan. 

P. 206, 1. 16. I. Cf. Carlyle's French Revolution. 

P. 209, 1. 9. I. Cf. Provincial, Proprietary, and Charter Governments. 

P. 211, 1. 8. I. "The joy of the colonies was for a time unmixed with 
apprehension," says Bancroft. 

L. 16. 2. Lord Rockingham. 

P. 215, 1. 29, I. Bentinck was the family name of the Duke of Port- 
land, a leader of the Whig Peers. 

L. 31. 2. Cavendish, the family name of the Duke of Devonshire, a 
leading Whig Commoner. 

P. 220, 1. 5. I. No statesman in history presents such a life of suffering 
for great causes. He believed that success was measured, not by a party 
vote, but by the devotion to right. 



ON AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 241 

Three years had not gone since Burke moved his plan of conciliation, 
and yet the commissioners sent by the king to sue for peace, and to grant 
most ample and complete concession, only reserving to the king the very 
right for which the colonies contended, — this dignified commission, armed 
cap-a-pie for an interview with the American Congress, — were fleeing at 
the tail of a retreating army, and letting fly " their Parthian shafts of 
manifestoes and remonstrances." To this issue had the dissension come, 

— a dissension which might have been prevented by the repeal of the 
miserable duty upon tea, — a badge of the royal prerogative to tax whom 
he pleased. The royal commission, when at safe distance from the halls 
of the American Congress, performed that last and valiant act of issuing 
a proclamation against the rebellious subjects of their sovereign. This 
was a scene of buffoonery which Burke must have enjoyed to the utmost. 

The colonists went from success to success, until, upon the very day 
when new supplies were setting sail for America, the war was being ended 
by the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. The news reached Lord 
North in a few weeks, and in the deepest agony he exclaimed, " O God ! 
it is all over ! " Yet he strove still to palliate the blow, until at last General 
Conway, who had before acted with the administration, moved that an 
address should be presented to the king against continuing the contest; and 
after a most aggressive discussion, at half-past one o'clock in the morning, 
on loud cries of ' Question ! Question ! ' the division was ordered, and the 
government was beaten by a majority of nineteen, and Westminster Hall 
was a scene of the wildest confusion; joy knew no bounds; the whole 
metropolis was aroused. At two o'clock Burke left the house, and wrote 
to his friend, Dr. Franklin : " I congratulate you as the friend of America 

— I trust as not the enemy of England — I am sure as the friend of man- 
kind — on the resolution of the House of Commons carried by a majority 
of nineteen. ... I trust that our happiness may be an introduction to 
that of the world at large." The resignation of the minister followed, 
and the last act which Lord North was to play in this tragedy of action 
and passion was deeply pathetic as on that bitterly cold night, amid the 
falling snow driven by keen March winds, on stepping into his carriage 
at Westminster Hall, he exclaimed to a group of the opposition, " Good- 
night, gentlemen ! " 



REFERENCES. 



Bancroft's History of the United States, Vols. III., IV., V., VI. 

May. Constitutional History. 

MoRLEY J. Burke. English Men of Letters Series. 

Goodrich, C. A. Select British Eloquence. 

Stephen, L. English Thought in the Eighteenth Century. 

Macaulay. Essay on Burke. 

Hazliit. Political Essays and Eloquence of the British Senate. 

MacKnight. Life and Times of Edmund Burke. 

Taine. English Literature. 

Gosse. Eighteenth Century Literature. 

Maurice. Friendship of Books. — Burke. 

MiNTO. Manual of English Prose Literature. 

Bascom. Philosophy of English Literature. 

FiSKE. American Political Ideas. 

" Beginnings of New England. 

" War of Independence. 

For periodical literature upon Burke, see Poole's Index, 

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